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WILLIAM  m 


THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 

OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 


SOVIETISM 


" How  explain  the  outspoken  sympathy  for  the  Bolshevik 
regime  among  so  many  well-meaning  democratic  Americans?  " 

"Our  credulity,  our  impatience  in  sifting  evidence  will  explain 
much.  We  will  take  a  hazardous  trip  to  Russia,  talk  to  Lenine 
and  his  commissars  through  an  interpreter,  return  with  a  phono- 
graphic reproduction  of  their  utterances.  But  we  will  not  study 
the  utterances  of  the  Bolsheviki  when  they  are  not  talking 
propaganda  for  America.  We  will  not  bring  critical  analysis 
to  bear  on  their  claims.  We  will  not  try  to  ascertain  whether 
in  the  nature  of  things  their  statements  are  possible." 

— Manya  Goedin  Stbunsky  in  The  Century. 


SOVIETISM 

THE  A  B  C  OF  RUSSIAN  BOLSHEVISM- 
ACCORDING  TO  THE  BOLSHEVISTS 


BY 

WILLIAM  ENGLISH  WALLING 

authob  of  "bussia's  message,"  "the  socialists 
and  the  wab,"  etc. 


NEW  YORK 

E.  P.  DUTTON  &  COMPANY 

681   FIFTH  AVENUE 


COPTKIGHT,  1920, 

By  E.  P.  DUTTON  &  COMPANY 


AU  Bights  Reserved 


Firtt  printing June,  1990 

Second  printing .  .  September,  1920 


printed  C«  the  dnfted  States  of  Hmerie* 


2L&  5 


FOREWORD 


What  everybody  wants  to  know  is  not  what  the  Bol- 
sheviki  claim  to  stand  for,  nor  even  what  they  honestly 
think  they  stand  for,  but  what  they  actually  do  stand 
for — according  to  a  fair  summary  of  their  own  acknowl- 
edged words  and  deeds. 

In  the  following  summary  first  weight  is  given  to  the 
Soviet  constitution  and  decrees — as  issued  by  the  Soviet 
or  sympathetic  publications — the  speeches  of  Lenine  and 
the  other  Bolshevist  leaders,  the  Bolshevist  press.  Only 
occasionally  is  other  evidence  referred  to.  The  opinions 
of  the  greatest  Bolshevist  writer,  Maxim  Gorky,  are 
quoted  as  giving  a  suitable  background  to  hold  the  ma- 
terial together. 

The  volume  is  prepared  for  the  use  of  the  general 
public,  which  has  shown  a  full  appreciation  of  the  fact 
that  this  type  of  evidence  is  conclusive.  To  the  fair- 
minded  reader  a  fraction  of  the  material  here  brought 
together  would  be  sufficient.  He  must  be  warned,  how- 
ever, that  the  Soviet  sympathizers  will  endeavor  to  im- 
pugn even  Soviet  testimony,  whenever  it  is  damaging. 

Let  the  facts  speak ! 


> 


1673979 


CONTENTS 

I.    SOVIETISM  AND  THE  BOLSHEVIKI 

PAOH 

I.    Who  Are  the  Bolsheviki? 3 

The  Bolsheviki  a  Sect. — Do  the  Soviets  Represent  the 
Majority? — The  International  Origin  of  Bolshevism. 

II.    What  Do  They  Want,  Fundamentally?  ...        8 

The  Class-Struggle  "Doctrine" — The  Absence  of  a 
"Seriously  Undertaken"  Program. — The  Present  "a 
Period  of  Destruction." — The  Bolshevist  New  Testa- 
ment. 

III.  What  Do  the  Soviets  Stand  for  in  Actual  Prac- 

tice?   18 

A  Method  of  Obtaining  Power. — Not  Unselfish  Idealists. 

IV.  What  Are  They  Fighting  Against?     ....      23 

Soviet  "Democracy." — Repudiation  of  Proletarian 
Democracy  by  the  Communist  International. — How 
Lenine  Launched  Civil  War. — The  Character  of  the 
Civil  War. 

V.    What  Is  the  Chief  Soviet  Weapon  ?     .      .     .     .      30 

The  Reign  of  Terror. — "Abandonment"  of  Reign  of 
Terror. — Starvation  as  a  Means  of  Government. — 
Psychological  Ruthlessness. 

VI.    To  What  Is  Their  Power  Due? 46 

The  Economic  Disorganization. — Russia  Starved  by 
the  Entente. — Soviet  Finance. — The  Bolshevist  Labor 
Policy. — The  Repression  of  the  Labor  Unions. — Soviet 
Russia  Establishes  Compulsory  Labor.  —  Militaristic 
State  Socialism  the  Final  Outcome. — Compulsion  for 
Industrial  Managers. — Special  Revolutionary  Tribunals 
for  Labor. — The  Secret  of  Red  Army  Success. — Soviet- 
ism  and  Bolshevism. — Educational  Reform? — Attempt 
to  Sovietize  the  Schools. — Bolshevism  against  Freedom 
of  Conscience  in  Education. — Education  and  Propa- 
ganda Merged. 

vii 


viii  CONTENTS 

MM 

VII.    What     Superiority      Have      the      Bolsheviki 

Developed? 86 

Do  the  Bolsheviki  Represent  the  Proletariat? — What  is 
New  About  Bolshevism? — The  Extraordinary  Propa- 
ganda Efficiency  of  the  Soviets. — The  Undemocratic 
Origin  of  the  Propaganda. — How  Does  the  Propaganda 
Succeed? 

VIII.    Can  the  Soviets  Win  Back  the  People?     ...       99 

Compulsory  Agriculture. — Bolshevism  vs.  Agriculture. — 
Communism  to  be  Forced  on  Agriculture. 

IX.    Are  the  Bolsheviki  Reforming? 113 


II.  THE  PRO-BOLSHEVISTS 

X.    "Authorities" 120 

A  Summary  of  Amazing  Claims. 

XI.    The  Origin  of  Pro-Bolshevism  in  Smolny  Insti- 
tute    125 

XII.    Varieties  of  Pro-Bolshevism 133 

i.     The  Near  Bolshevists. 

XIII.  Varieties  of  Pro-Bolshevism 137 

ii.     The  Pro-Sovietists. 

XIV.  Varieties  of  Pro-Bolshevism 146 

iii.     Benevolent  Neutrality. 

XV.    Non-Bolshevist  Supporters 150 

Killing  Sovietism  by  Kindness. — Recognition  the  Real 
Object  of  the  Economic  Propaganda. — Foreign  Capital  to 
Rescue  Sovietism. — Compromising  with  Bolshevism. 

III.  SOVIETISM  ABROAD 

XVI.    The  Soviets'  Plans  for  World  Revolution       .     165 

Road  to  International  Dictatorship. — A  Revolutionary 
Offensive. — Instruments  of  Revolution. — Platform  of 
Third  International. — Sovietizing  the  World. — Attitude 


CONTENTS  ix 

PAO* 

to  United  States. — Letter  to  American  Labor.— Soviet 
Movements  Progress. — The  Black  International. — 
Victory  for  1920  Predicted. — Open  War  on  the  World. — 
World  Disorder  as  a  Preparation  for  World  Revolt. — 
Sovietism  in  the  Border  States. — Bolshevist  Revolu- 
tionism as  Taught  in  Italy. — Russian  and  German 
Sovietism. — Bolshevist  Imperialism. — The  Function  of 
the     Communist     International. — The     Strength     and  ' 

Weakness  of  World  Revolt  as  the  Basis  for  Sovietism. 

XVII.    The  Capture  of  the  World's  Socialist  Parties  by 

Bolshevism 191 

The  American  Socialist  Party  Joins  the  Communist 
International. — The  Soviet  Government  and  the  Com- 
munist International. 

APPENDICES 
I.    Sovietism  and  Religion 209 

II.    The  Soviets  As  a  Military  Menace      .     .     .     215 

III.    The  Communist  Party's  Official  Functions  in 

the  Soviet  Government 218 


PART   I 
SOVIETISM  AND  THE  BOLSHEVIKI 


CHAPTER  I 

WHO    AEE    THE    BOLSHEVIKI? 

The  Bolsheviki  are  a  Sect,  that  is  an  organized  move- 
ment which  believes  it  has  the  only  truth  and  all  the 
truth  that  is  necessary  for  the  social  salvation  of  human  - 
ity. 

The  Bolsheviki  are  not 

a  political  party  in  the  ordinary  sense, 

the  "majority"  of  Russia, 

the  proletariat  or  wage  earning  class. 

The  Bolsheviki  a  Sect. — That  this  "party"  is  in  real- 
ity a  sect  is  shown  by  all  its  publications  and  by  most 
of  its  acts.  The  preamble  of  the  Soviet  Constitution 
(adopted  by  the  5th  Pan-Russian  Congress)  declares 
that  the  Soviets  propose  "to  put  an  end  to  every  ill 
that  oppresses  humanity!" 

Do  the  Soviets  Represent  the  Majority? — The  con- 
stitution abandons  any  claim  to  represent  the  masses  as 
a  whole,  declaring  for  "a  dictatorship  of  the  proletariat 
and  the  poorest  peasantry.' '  A  previous  constitution 
had  given  such  of  the  peasantry  as  were  enfranchised  a 
representation  equal  to  the  urban  proletariat  in  each 
province.  But  even  the  largest  Bolshevist  estimate  of 
the  numbers  of  the  proletariat  calculates  them  as  being 
only  one-fifth  as  many  as  the  peasants  or  agriculturists. 
The  new  constitution,   reprinted  by  the  sympathetic 

3 


4  SOVIETISM 

New  York  Nation,  accomplishes  the  same  result  as  fol- 
lows (see  Section  8,  Article  1)  : 

' '  The  Pan-Russian  Congress  of  Soviets  consists  of 
representatives  of  the  urban  Soviets  (one  delegate 
for  each  25,000  votes)  and  representatives  of  the 
provincial  congresses  (one  delegate  for  each  125,000 
voters)." 

In  order  to  understand  the  extent  and  precise  grounds 
of  Lenine's  repudiation  of  majority  rule,  let  us  quote 
his  denunciation  of  the  rival  faction  of  the  Social  Dem- 
ocratic or  "Workingmen's  Party,  namely,  the  Menshe- 
viki: 

"In  its  class  composition  this  party  is  not  So- 
cialistic at  all.  It  does  not  represent  the  laboring 
masses.  It  represents  fairly  prosperous  peasants 
and  workingmen,  petty  traders,  many  small  and 
some  even  fairly  large  capitalists,  and  a  certain 
number  of  real  but  gullible  proletarians  who  have 
been  caught  in  the  bourgeois  net. ' ' 

Even  a  "fairly  prosperous"  workingman  is  not  a 
"proletarian." 

Karl  Radek,  one  of  the  most  influential  Bolsheviki, 
interviewed  in  Berlin  by  The  New  York  Globe — a  paper 
favorably  regarded  by  the  Bolsheviki,  is  reported  as 
saying: 

"The  claim,  made  by  some  of  our  people,  that  the 
majority  of  the  Russian  people  favor  the  Soviet 
government  is  not  true.  .The  peasants  are  against 
the  Soviet  government." 

The  peasants  are  90  per  cent,  of  the  Russian  people 
(and  even  more,  since  the  loss  of  the  leading  industrial 
district,  Russian  Poland). 


SOVIETISM  AND  THE  BOLSHEVIKI  5 

Lenine  himself  has  admitted  his  failure  with  the 
largest  peasant  group: 

"We  have  not  yet  learned  how  to  regulate  our  re- 
lations with  the  middle  peasants  and  to  win  their 
confidence." — Lenine 's  Report  to  Eighth  Congress 
of  the  Russian  Communist  (Bolshevist)  Party,  Pet- 
rograd  Pravda,  April  5,  1919. 

One  of  the  most  sympathetic  to  Bolshevism  of  all  the 
correspondents  selected  by  Lenine  to  enter  Russia  in 
the  confident  assurance  that  he  would  give  desirable 
reports,  was  Isaac  Don  Levine  of  The  New  York  Evening 
Globe.  In  a  speech  in  New  York  in  February,  1920, 
Mr.  Levine  pointed  out  that  there  are  only  300,000  real 
Bolsheviki  (members  of  the  Communist  Party)  in  Russia 
to-day,  and  only  62,000  Communists  in  the  Red  Army, 
which  numbers  more  than  1,200,000  men,  of  whom  80 
per  cent,  are  conscripts. 

"The  majority  of  the  Russian  people,"  he  stated, 
"know  practically  nothing  of  Socialism  or  its  prin- 
ciples. They  are  not  converts  to  Communism,  but 
they  prefer  the  Soviet  government  to  seeing  the 
dictatorship  of  Denikin  or  Yudenitch,  and  they 
fight  under  the  Soviet  banner  to  preserve  their  in- 
dependence." (For  facts  showing  that  the  Russian 
"proletariat"  are  not  Bolshevists,  see  Chapter  7.) 

Of  course  the  people  will  passively  submit  to  any 
despotism,  temporarily — during  periods  like  the  present 
in  Russia,  or  like  the  last  decade  of  the  Czarism,  when 
even  90  per  cent,  of  the  nation  was  helpless  against  a 
highly  organized  army,  bureaucracy,  and  police. 

In  the  hearings  before  the  Senate  Commission,  "Am- 
bassador" Martens  argued  indirectly  that  the  prole- 
tariat (represented  by  the  Bolsheviki  and  by  the  Bol- 


6  SOVIETISM 

sheviki  alone)  were  always  the  majority  ana  would  al- 
ways use  violence — unless  their  opponents  submitted  to 
their  dictatorship. 

"Do  you  believe  in  the  dictatorship  of  the  proletar- 
iat?" Mr.  Ellis,  the  Senate  counsel,  inquired. 

"Certainly,"  Martens  replied.  "I  believe  the  Soviet 
form  of  government  is  the  best,  and  if  the  great  mass  of 
the  people  are  in  favor  of  it  they  have  the  right  to 
use  force  against  minorities  if  they  resist.  The  ruling 
classes  always  resist." 

"You  don't  think  the  proletariat  has  a  right  to  use 
revolutionary  force  unless  it  is  in  the  majority?"  Mr. 
Ellis  asked. 

"The  proletariat  is  always  in  the  majority,"  said 
Martens. 

Quotations  from  Lenine  in  several  parts  of  this  volume 
show  the  Bolshevist  claim  that  only  Bolsheviki  are  self- 
conscious  proletarians  or,  at  least,  they  retain  the  right 
to  say  who  the  real  or  loyal  proletarians  are.  Yet 
no  matter  how  many  are  thus  excluded — and  Lenine  ex- 
cludes most  of  the  world's  Socialist  and  Labor  organ- 
izations— the  remnant,  approved  officially  by  the  Bolshe- 
viki, is  still  held  to  be  the  proletariat,  which  is  the  ma- 
jority, and — under  Bolshevik  dictatorship,  called  the 
dictatorship  of  the  proletariat — is  justified  in  using 
violence,  and  in  seizing  control  of  government  and 
industry. 

The  International  Origin  of  Bolshevism. — Bolshevism 
or  Sovietism  is  by  no  means  a  Russian  or  Slavic  move- 
ment, it  is  not  "a  natural  political  expression  of  the 
Slavic  genius,"  nor  "the  traditional  Russian  idea  of 
democracy,"  as  its  American  apologists  have  alleged. 
All  Russians,  Bolshevists  and  non-Bolshevists  alike,  hail 


SOVIETISM  AND  THE  BOLSHEVIKI  7 

Sovietism  (or  denounce  it)  as  something  new  and  inter- 
national. Lenine  himself  says  the  idea  was  taken  in 
part  from  the  Paris  Commune,  in  part  from  the  Amer- 
ican revolutionary  Socialist,  Daniel  De  Leon.  Nothing 
would  so  insult  the  Sovietists  as  to  declare  that  their 
movement  is  in  any  degree  either  a  national  or  a  tradi- 
tional development. 

A  certain  group  of  Americans  have  "discovered" 
that  the  Soviets  are  a  peasant  institution,  derived  from 
the  mir  (the  town  meeting  of  the  peasants).  There  is 
no  resemblance,  no  historic  connection,  and  no  relation 
whatever  between  the  Soviet  and  the  mir  in  the  Russian 
mind.  In  fact  they  represent  the  opposite  poles  of  Rus- 
sian thought  and  politics — the  mir  being  feared  and 
opposed  by  the  Bolshevists,  who  have  done  all  in  their 
power  to  replace  it  by  village  committees  and  other 
institutions.  The  mir  on  the  other  hand  is  favored  by 
the  arch  enemies  of  the  Bolshevists,  the  Social  Revolu- 
tionists, who  elected  a  majority  to  the  constitutional  as- 
sembly, which  was  broken  up  by  Soviet  bayonets. 

Three-fourths  of  the  self-chosen  leaders  of  the  Soviets, 
members  of  a  non-Slavic  race  (which  they  do  not,  how- 
ever, truthfully  represent),  have  a  German  dialect  as 
their  mother  tongue,  and  have  scarcely  had  contact  with 
this  peasant  people  (the  Russians) .  Many  of  these  have 
Bpent  a  large  part  of  their  lives  in  Germany,  Switzer- 
land, Austria,  England,  France  or  America  and  confess 
their  ideas  were  taken  largely  from  the  extremists  of 
those  countries. 


CHAPTER  II 

WHAT   DO   THE   BOLSHEVIKI  WANT, 
FUNDAMENTALLY  ? 

When  the  profession  of  theories  and  doctrines  is  put 
to  the  crucial  test,  in  the  only  way  it  can  be  tested, 
namely,  by  the  force  of  circumstances — as  in  the  civil 
war  in  Russia  to-day — the  Bolshevild  are  found  in  ac- 
tual practice  to  be  aiming  at  one  thing  only,  POWER 
for  their  sect.  Like  Mohammed  and  his  followers  they 
believe  that  they  are  the  only  trustworthy  custodians 
and  interpreters  of  the  constantly  changing  practical 
aims  of  the  sect.  If  they  secure  all  the  power  they  want 
they  may,  or  may  not,  stand  for  certain  ideas  and  doc- 
trines, such  as  may  then  appeal  to  them.  At  present 
they  are  mainly  concerned  with  the  struggle  to  establish, 
maintain  and  increase  their  autocratic  power,  which 
they  call  "the  dictatorship  of  the  proletariat." 

Bolshevism  is  not  primarily 

a  doctrine, 

a  program  for  a  new  society. 

"Russian  Bolshevism  .  .  No,  it  is  not  a  doc- 
trine, nor  a  political  party.  It  is  merely  a  method, 
a  mode  of  action,  only  a  means  which  has  long  ago 
become  widely  detached  from  the  very  aims  thai 
were  supposed  to  justify  it." 

These  words  of  Alexander  Kouprine,  famous  Russian 
author,  were  called  to  my  attention  after  the  present 
booklet  was  prepared.    They  are  the  very  words  I  have 

8 


SOVIETISM  AND  THE  BOLSHEVIKI  9' 

employed,  and  give  a  strong  reenforcement  to  the 
view  here  taken  because  of  the  fact  that  Kouprine,  a 
close  friend  of  that  famous  Bolshevik,  Maxim  Gorky, 
lived  in  Russia  during  a  large  part  of  the  Bolshevist 
regime  and  had  every  opportunity  for  observation. 

The  Class-Struggle  "Doctrine". — The  only  socio- 
logical doctrine  the  Bolsheviki  hold  to  is  the  Socialist 
theory  of  class-struggle.  Even  this  they  do  not  treat 
seriously  and  critically  like  Kautsky  and  the  German 
Socialists.  Taken  as  the  Soviets  take  it,  it  is  really  no 
doctrine  at  all,  but  merely  a  call  to  arms.  The  sect  can 
win  only  by  fighting.  The  enemy  is  utterly  wicked  and 
must  be  fought  to  a  finish.  All  neutrals  must  be  forced 
to  choose  sides.  The  fight  must  be  forced  so  as  to  com- 
pel this.  The  fighting  can  thus  be  made  desperate,  and 
every  barbarity  and  ruthlessness  can  be  justified.  Etc. 
Etc.  If  this  is  a  doctrine  then  every  fighting  sect  has 
held  a  similar  doctrine. 

The  Absence  of  a  "Seriously  Undertaken"  Program. 
— The  Soviets  have  not  seriously  adopted  any  construc- 
tive governmental  program  of  their  own.  They  have  set 
down  a  vast  number  of  contradictory  projects  on  paper 
— but  mainly  for  propaganda.  They  have  disturbed 
themselves  little  about  realization.  They  have  the  gov- 
ernment and  the  country  but  they  do  not  accept  respon- 
sibility. For,  though  every  one  of  these  projects  should 
fail  completely  no  propaganda  value  will  be  lost  (at  least 
for  some  time),  since  every  failure  is  held  up  to  the 
people  as  being  due  either  to  the  past  crimes  of  the 
Russian  bourgeoisie,  the  present  crimes  of  the  other 
bourgeois  governments,  or  the  danger  of  the  return  of 
the  bourgeoisie — which  necessitates  the  suspension  of  all 
new  and  far-reaching  Bolshevik  construction.    By  con- 


10  SOVIETISM 

tinuing  their  military  and  conspirative  threats  against 
neighboring  countries  the  Bolsheviki  believe  they  can 
keep  these  countries  on  the  alert  and  make  this  danger 
to  "the  revolution"  in  Russia  last  indefinitely.  Bis- 
marck argued  for  the  annexation  of  Alsace-Lorraine  be- 
cause it  would  keep  the  French  hostile,  and  thus  provide 
a  solid  ground  for  German  militarism.  Lenine's  reason- 
ing— openly  avowed  in  many  of  his  statements — is 
similar. 

"The  task  of  construction  depends  entirely  on 
how  soon  revolution  will  triumph  in  the  more  im- 
portant countries  of  Europe.  Only  after  such  a 
victory  shall  we  be  able  seriously  to  undertake  the 
work  of  construction." — Speech  of  Lenine  to  Pet- 
rograd  Soviet,  Severnaya  Kommuna,  March  4,  1919. 

The  Bolshevists  are  "seriously  undertaking"  one  thing 
only  "for  the  present  period" — the  capturing  of  gov- 
ernments by  the  international  Bolshevist  sect.  Why 
should  we  take  seriously  a  work  of  construction  which 
is  not  yet  seriously  undertaken  ?  Under  these  conditions 
many  projects  for  construction  are  as  a  matter  of  fact 
pure  propaganda  (see  Chapter  V).  At  best  they  rep- 
resent a  political  theory  and  not  a  political  program. 

But  even  these  theories  are  not  to  be  taken  very  seri- 
ously ;  they  do  not  hold  together  consistently  or  persist- 
ently as  a  system  or  doctrine. 

The  Bolshevists  teach  nothing  consistently  except 
Bolshevist  rule  through  "Soviets,"  which  may  mean  any 
social  system — or  mere  opportunism  and  chaos. 

Maxim  Gorky,  referring  in  Novaya  Zhisn  to  "the 
chaotic,  topsy-turvy  activities  of  the  Soviets,"  declared: 

"The  decrees  of  the  'Government  of  People's 
Commissioners'  are  no  more  than  newspaper  feuille- 


SOVIETISM  AND  THE  BOLSHEVIKI        11 

tons,  no  more,  no  less.  It  is  that  sort  of  literature 
which  is  written  on  water,  and  even  though  a  real 
idea  is  now  and  then  given  expression  to,  the  present 
circumstances  forbid  the  realization  of  any  idea." 

"Die  Freiheit,"  the  Berlin  organ  of  the  Independent 
Social-Democrats,  a  revolutionary  newspaper,  which  has 
been  most  friendly  to  the  Bolsheviki,  says: 

1 '  Purity  of  principles  is  for  Russia  only  an  article 
for  exportation.  Always  seeking  to  introduce  an- 
archy and  disorder  in  the  world,  Lenine  to-day 
finds  his  road  to  Damascus,  for  he  is  making  a  fresh 
appeal  to  capitalist  forms  in  order  to  reestablish 
the  general  economy  of  the  country.  The  dictator- 
ship of  the  proletariat  is  reducing  itself  to  the 
dictatorship  of  a  few  Communist  leaders.  The 
Councils'  system  is  broken  up,  for  the  workers  have 
no  longer  any  influence  in  the  factories.  The  agra- 
rian program  of  the  Communists  is  a  complete 
fiasco." 

Why  all  this  effort  to  provide  an  export  propaganda. — 
which  has  absorbed  a  large  part  of  the  Soviets'  time 
and  means?  Because  the  Bolsheviki,  like  the  Moham- 
medans, know  their  sect  can  thrive  only  while  spread- 
ing by  arms  and  propaganda.  Lenine  has  declared  to 
Raymond  Robins  and  others  that  Sovietism  cannot 
hope  to  live  if  confined  to  Russia  alone.  The  reason  is 
that  in  modern  society  neither  arms  nor  propaganda* — 
as  the  main  props  of  a  social  system — have  ever  been 
able  to  accomplish  anything  much  at  home.  By  their 
very  nature  they  require  a  constant  supply  of  new  terri- 
tories and  peoples  to  act  upon. 

(It  is  worth  while,  in  passing,  to  point  out  the  proba- 
ble motive  of  this  semi-Communist  organ  of  the  German 
Independents.     They  do  not  see  how  Lenine  can  help 


12  SOYIETISM 

the  world  revolution  in  which  they  are  interested,  and 
at  the  same  time  enter  into  a  sort  of  economic  alliance 
with  foreign  capitalists!) 

The  Present  a  Period  of  Destruction. — The  following 
important  pronouncement,  typical  of  many  others,  shows 
that  the  Bolsheviki  have  deliberately  planned  to  turn 
their  backs,  for  the  present  period,  on  constructive  work 
and  to  give  their  entire  energy  to  destruction: 

"The  present  is  the  period  of  destruction  and 
crushing  of  the  capitalist  system  of  the  whole 
world." 

— Call  for  First  International 
Communist  Congress,  Petrograd 
wireless,  January  23,  1919. 

Criticisms  of  Bolshevism  by  Captain  Jacques  Sadoul 
are  almost  as  valuable  as  those  of  Maxim  Gorky.  For 
two  years  Sadoul  was  the  most  active  of  the  foreign 
sympathizers  with  the  Bolsheviki  in  Russia.  A  member 
of  the  French  Military  Mission  he  was  given  every  op- 
portunity by  Lenine  and  soon  became  the  chief  French 
exponent  of  Bolshevism.  After  having  been  court-mar- 
tialed by  the  French  government  he  was  nominated  by 
the  Socialists  of  Paris  for  the  Chamber  of  Deputies  and 
obtained  the  same  large  vote  as  did  the  other  Socialist 
candidates. 

Sadoul,  like  Gorky,  is  a  partisan  and  his  detailed  testi- 
mony in  behalf  of  Bolshevism  cannot  be  accepted  with- 
out further  examination.  This  does  not  apply  to  his 
testimony  against  it.  His  book  on  the  Bolshevist  Rev- 
olution has  an  introduction  by  Henri  Barbusse,  who, 
an  ardent  and  unqualified  Bolshevist  himself,  recom- 
mends it  without  qualification.    Sadoul  says: 


SOVIETISM  AND  THE  BOLSHEVIKI        13 

"The  Soviet  regime,  resting  exclusively  upon  the 
proletarians,  has  brilliantly  demonstrated  its  de- 
structive power  and  its  insufficiency  in  creative 
work." — "Notes  sur  la  Revolution  Bolchevike"  (p. 
377). 

The  Bolshevist  New  Testament. — The  doctrine  with 
which  the  Bolsheviki  came  into  power  is  carefully  and 
deliberately  elaborated  by  Lenine  in  his  book  called  ' '  The 
State  and  Revolution,"  published  in  the  autumn  of 
1917.  While  the  previous  works  of  Lenine  constitute 
the  Old  Testament,  this  book,  published  after  the  first 
Russian  revolution,  and  immediately  before  the  Bol- 
fehevik  bayonets  turned  Kerensky  out,  is  the  New  Testa- 
ment of  the  Soviets. 

This  New  Testament  has  brought  Lenine 's  views  into 
final  form  for  propaganda  purposes.  His  theories  are 
lengthy  and  complicated  so  that  he  and  his  followers 
have  no  difficulty  in  finding  texts  to  support  any  acts 
whatever  that  promise  to  extend  their  power.  It  is  upon 
the  type  of  doctrine  contained  in  ' '  The  State  and  Revolu- 
tion" that  the  Bolsheviki  based  their  appeals  to  the 
masses  in  the  summer  of  1917 — that  is,  these  were  their 
theoretical  views,  for  they  were  enforced  by  the  crudest 
promises  of  bread,  land,  peace  and  the  political  sover- 
eignty of  the  mass.  In  other  words,  every  conceivable 
promise  was  made  entirely  regardless  of  the  facts,  of 
possibilities  of  fulfillment,  or  of  contradictions  between 
the  promises  themselves. 

Nor  must  it  be  supposed  that  all  this  propaganda  was 
the  main  force  which  overturned  Kerensky  and  estab- 
lished Lenine.  The  pressure  of  the  German  armies  was 
constantly  pushing  Russia  towards  the  gulf,  while  the 


14  SOVIETISM 

German  propagandists  were  doing  everything  in  their 
power  to  reenforce  the  propaganda  of  the  Bolsheviki. 

The  importance  of  this  "new  testament"  must  there- 
fore not  be  exaggerated,  either  in  its  political  effects 
or  as  giving  an  insight  into  the  fundamental  psychology 
of  the  Bolsheviki.  Their  psychology  is  mainly  character- 
ized as  a  tendency  not  towards  doctrine  of  any  kind, 
but  towards  a  struggle  for  power  for  the  sect.  But 
"The  State  and  Revolution"  does  indicate  the  sort  of 
doctrine  whicJi  Bolshevism  evolves  when  it  is  occupied 
with  theorizing.  It  thus  gives  the  drift  of  the  Bolshe- 
vik mind,  discloses  the  guiding  motives  of  the  Bolshevik 
character  and  shows  one  of  the  devices  by  which  they 
obtained  power. 

The  great  revolutionary  work  of  the  Bolshevik  Mo- 
hammed proves  clearly  that  his  favorite  ideas  (which, 
however,  he  doesn't  allow  to  interfere  with  his  struggle 
for  power)  are  to  be  classed  rather  as  Communist- Anar- 
chist than  as  Socialism  even  of  a  revolutionary  type. 

"The  State  is  the  organ  of  class  domination,  the 
organ  of  oppression  of  one  class  by  another"  (page 
11).    Therefore  it  must  be  destroyed. 

"The  democratic  Republic  is  the  best  possible 
political  form  for  capitalism"  (page  18). 

' '  The  substitution  of  a  proletarian.for  the  capital- 
ist State  is  impossible  without  a  violent  revolution" 
(page  26). 

In  Russia  (March,  1917),  according  to  our  author, 
on  account  of  the  weakness  and  corruption  of  the 
Cadets,  Mensheviks  and  the  Socialist  Revolution- 
aries, the  proletariat  was  called  upon  "to  concen- 
trate all  the  forces  of  destruction  against  the  State, 
and  to  regard  the  problem  as  one  not  of  perfecting 
the  machinery  of  the  State,  but  of  breaking  up  and 
annihilating  it "  ( page  37 ) . 


SOVIETISM  AND  THE  BOLSHEYIKI        15 

Anarchism  is  the  enemy,  above  all,  of  the  political 
State.  And  in  our  time  the  political  State  is,  mainly, 
a  democracy  based  upon  majority  rule.  Lenine  declares 
open  war  against  democracy,  that  is,  he  did  so  until 
recently,  when  his  advisers  in  Western  Europe  and 
America  persuaded  him  to  assume  outwardly  the  oppo- 
site stand.  This  change,  however,  is  clearly  only  on  the 
surface,  since  numberless  quotations  can  be  shown  from 
his  writings  and  speeches  even  recently  to  the  contrary 
(see  below). 

He  also  attacks  "majority  rule"  but  in  this  instance 
wishes  to  claim  the  phrase  "majority  rule"  for  his  side 
of  the  case.  He  does  this  by  the  trick  of  calling  existing 
majority  rule  "majority  domination" — his  contention 
being  that  as  long  as  the  minority  does  not  willingly 
submit  to  each  majority  decision  we  have  no  majority 
rule  but  a  dictatorship,  which  he  calls  a  dictatorship  of 
the  bourgeoisie!  This  view  is  expressed  in  the  follow- 
ing paragraph: 

"Democracy  is  not  identical  with  majority  rule. 
Democracy  is  a  State  which  recognizes  the  subjection 
of  the  minority  to  the  majority — that  is,  an  organ- 
ization for  the  use  of  violence  ...  by  one  part  of 
the  population  against  another.  .  .  .  We  set  our- 
selves, as  our  final  aim,  the  task  of  the  destruction 
of  the  State — that  is,  of  every  form  ...  of  violence 
against  man  in  general.  .  .  .  Striving  for  Socialism, 
we  are  convinced  it  will  develop  further  into  Com- 
munism .  .  .  and  there  will  vanish  all  need  for 
force  .  .  .  since  people  will  grow  accustomed  to  ob- 
serving the  elementary  conditions  of  social  existence 
without  force  and  without  subjection"  (page  85). 

Lenine  does  not  deny  that  his  new  regime  is  based 
upon  violence.     (See  below.)     Indeed,  this  is  precisely 


16  SOVIETISM 

what  he  means  by  a  dictatorship  of  the  proletariat." 
He  is  constantly  referring  to  this  accepted  Bolshevik 
phrase  in  order  to  demonstrate  to  the  satisfaction  of  hia 
Bolshevik  followers  that  there  must  be  an  "iron  dicta- 
torship," "the  rule  of  one  man  in  each  industry,"  etc. 

He  covers  this  contradiction  easily  by  saying  that  a 
dictatorship  of  the  proletariat  is  necessary  "for  a  con- 
siderable period  in  order  to  destroy  the  dictatorship  of 
the  bourgeoisie."  That  is,  to  destroy  what  we  call 
democracy  and  majority  rule! 

Lenine  *s  Communism  is  fully  and  sufficiently  expressed 
in  the  following  paragraph : 

1 '  To  organize  our  whole  national  economy  like  the 
postal  system,  but  in  such  a  way  that .  .  .  all  persons 
employed  should  receive  no  higher  wages  than  the 
working  man,  and  the  whole  under  the  management 
of  the  armed  proletariat — this  is  our  immediate  aim. 
That  is  the  kind  of  State  and  the  economic  basis  we 
need"  (page  52). 

It  only  needs  to  be  pointed  out  that  Lenine  has  given 
a  great  many  conflicting  interpretations  to  this  Commun- 
ist principle  and  will  doubtless  give  still  others.  Appa- 
rently he  is  able  to  advocate  any  economic  methods 
whatever  under  this  head  from  syndicalism  to  compul- 
sory labor;  from  the  Taylor  system  of  scientific  man- 
agement to  the  payment  of  enormous  salaries  for  experts! 

In  other  words,  his  doctrines  do  not  restrict  him  in 
any  direction ;  he  guides  the  Soviet  ship  of  state  without 
ia  chart,  in  the  meanwhile  claiming  infallibility  by  offer- 
ing himself  as  the  only  prophet,  the  only  authorized  in- 
terpreter of  his  doctrines.  His  method,  as  Gorky  says, 
is  experimental — a  method  that  a  rich,  well  organized, 


SOYIETISM  AND  THE  BOLSHEVIKI        17 

and  educated  nation  might  deliberately  adopt  (within 
rational  limits),  but  a  method  that  no  despot,  and  es- 
pecially no  leader  of  a  sect  would  dare  to  avow,  least 
of  all  in  a  desperately  wretched  and  backward  country. 


CHAPTEE  in 

WHAT  PRINCIPLES  DO   THE  BOLSHEVIKI 
STAND   FOR  IN   ACTUAL   PRACTICE? 

The  Bolsheviki  stand  for  one  set  of  principles  persist- 
ently, and  for  these  only — namely,  a  METHOD  of  ob- 
taining and  keeping  power  for  their  sect.  It  is  the 
method  of  fanaticism.  They  are  ready  to  sacrifice  every- 
thing for  their  object — including  not  only  themselves, 
but — as  far  as  necessary  for  their  purpose — the  entire 
human  race  and  everything  it  has  created.  They  do  not 
acknowledge  any  inviolable  rights  of  anybody  outside 
their  sect  and  they  deny  all  facts,  principles,  ideals, 
and  logic  that  at  any  time  or  place  stand  in  the  way 
of  their  effort  to  obtain  a  monopoly  of  power  for  their 
sect. 

The  Bolsheviki  are  not 

idealists,  since  their  aim  is  concrete,  the  posses- 
sion of  their  earth  by  their  sect,  and  its  use  and 
control,  not  according  to  any  predetermined 
principles  but  according  to  any  principles  they 
determine  as  they  go  along; 
unselfish,  since  they  are  aiming  at  the  advance 
(by  any  and  all  means)  not  of  themselves  alone, 
it  is  true,  but  of  their  sect,  including  themselves. 

In  Russia  the  Bolsheviki  are  fighting  all  other  parties, 
that  is  all  that  do  not  accept  their  autocratic  rule;  in 
other  words,  they  are  fighting  democracy  (see  Chapter 

18 


SOVIETISM  AND  THE  BOLSHEVIKI        19 

IV).  The  testimony  of  the  English  expert  Lockhart  is 
valuable  on  this  point.  His  competency  and.information 
are  testified  to  by  the  pro-Bolshevist  Raymond  Robins 
(though  Lockhart  now  reaches  the  opposite  conclusions). 
Lockhart  says: 

' '  The  avowed  ambition  of  Lenine  is  to  create  civil 
warfare  throughout  Europe.  Every  speech  of  Le- 
nine 's  is  a  denunciation  of  constitutional  methods, 
and  a  glorification  of  the  doctrine  of  physical  force. 
"With  that  object  in  view  he  is  destroying  systemati- 
cally both  by  execution  and  by  deliberate  starvation 
every  form  of  opposition  to  Bolshevism.  This  system 
of  'terror'  is  aimed  chiefly  at  the  Liberals  and  non- 
Bolshevist  Socialists,  whom  Lenine  regards  as  his 
most  dangerous  opponents." 

This  is  not  unselfish  idealism ;  it  is  the  self-seeking  of 
a  sect. 

A  Bolshevik  comrade  wrote  Gorky  saying,  "You 
should  rejoice,  comrade,  that  the  proletariat  is  victo- 
rious. ' '  To  this  Gorky  replied  in  his  paper,  the  Novw/a 
Zhizn: 

"I  have  no  reason  for  rejoicing.  The  proletariat 
has  conquered  no  one  and  nothing.  Just  as  the 
proletariat  was  unconquered  when  the  former  police 
regime  held  it  by  the  throat,  just  so  the  bourgeoisie, 
which  the  proletariat  has  now  by  the  throat,  is  not 
conquered.  In  general,  ideas  cannot  be  conquered 
by  physical  force." 

"In  factories  and  shops  a  vehement  struggle  has 
arisen,"  he  says,  "between  the  uneducated  and  un- 
skilled workmen  and  those  skilled  and  educated. 
The  unskilled  workers  call  the  trained  workers — 
locksmiths,  machinists,  foundry  workers,  etc. — 
'Bourgeoisie.'  " 

"But  what  alarms  me  most,"  he  continues,  "is 


20  sovietism 

the  fact  that  the  revolution  does  not  bring  with  it 
any  sign  of  a  spiritual  regeneration  among  men.  It 
does  not  seem  to  be  making  men  more  honest.  It 
is  not  lifting  their  self-esteem  nor  the  moral  value  of 
their  labor.  At  least  one  does  not  notice  among  the 
masses  that  the  revolution  has  lifted  or  quickened 
their  social  conscience.  Human  life  is  appraised 
just  as  cheaply  as  it  was  before.  .  .  .  The  'new 
authorities'  are  just  as  brutal  as  the  old  ones  were, 
and  in  the  bargain  their  manners  are  worse.  The 
new  officials  permit  themselves  to  be  bribed  just  as 
easily  and  they  send  men  to  prison  in  herds  the 
same  as  the  old  did. ' ' 

"Physical  force  has  merely  been  transferred," 
writes  Gorky,  "and  there  is  no  more  contemptible 
poison  than  power  over  one's  fellowmen." 

The  reason  why  there  is  no  "spiritual  regeneration" 
is  clear.  The  Bolshevists  do  not  appeal  in  most  cases 
to  social  instincts  or  social  aspiration.  Most  victims 
are  offered  bread  or  work.  Some  are  offered  pay  or 
preferment,  careers  of  revolutionary  adventure  in  the 
Bolshevist  hierarchy,  or  even  opportunities  for  plunder 
or  revenge. 

Gorky  makes  it  clear  that  Lenine  is  not  really  endea- 
voring to  live  up  to  any  fixed  dogma,  except  his  own 
divine  right  to  rule.  For  he  regards  himself  as  free 
to  experiment.  That  is  the  only  dogma  and  it  furnishes 
him  with  his  excuse  in  his  own  mind,  but  it  does  not 
limit  or  determine  the  direction  of  his  actions.  That 
is,  it  is  his  dogma.  Doubtless  he  shares  its  profits  with 
his  loyal  and  devoted  sect,  but  not  with  others.  Gorky 
said  (in  Novaya  Zhisn) : 

"Lenine  possesses  all  the  qualities  of  a  'chief,' 
including  the  absolute  moral  indifference  which  is 
often  necessary  for  such  a  part.    This  people  has 


SOVIETISM  AND  THE  BOLSHEVIKI        21 

already  paid  for  Lenine 's  'experience'  with  thou- 
sands and  thousands  of  lives.  It  will  still  cost  it 
tens  of  thousands  more.  But  this  atrocious  tra- 
gedy never  makes  Lenine  hesitate,  for  he  is  the  slave 
of  dogma,  and  his  partisans  are  his  slaves.  The 
working  classes  are  to  Lenine  what  minerals  are  to 
the  metallurgist.  Can  a  Socialist-Nationalist  state 
be  made  of  this  mineral?  Indeed  no,  and  Lenine 
doubts  it.  But  why  not  try  ?  What  does  Lenine  risk 
if  the  attempt  does  not  come  off  ?    Nothing  much. '  '* 

Aiming,  as  it  does,  at  power  at  any  price,  in  the  name 
of  the  most  ignorant  of  the  masses,  Bolshevism  cannot 
embody,  or  even  consistently  aim  at,  idealism.  All  the 
other  parts  of  the  teaching  are  utterly  subordinate  to 
this:  power  for  the  least  developed  part  of  the  people. 
There  is  no  idealism  in  this.  If  some  of  the  leaders  en- 
deavor to  mix  in  a  certain  amount  of  irrelevant  ideal- 
ism it  can  have  no  practical  effect.  The  chief  Bolshe- 
vists would  not — and  could  not — allow  it  to  become  a 
dominant  note. 

Sadoul  says  (on  page  200  of  his  "Notes  sur  la  Revolu- 
tion Bolchevike")  that,  in  view  of  the  existing  level  of 
the  Russian  masses,  Bolshevism — which  appeals  to  the 
masses  alone — must  necessarily  end,  in  Russia,  in  pure 
demagogy.    He  writes: 

*  These  and  other  quotations  from  Gorky  in  the  present  vol- 
ume were  all  written  after  many  years  of  intimate  knowledge 
as  a  member  of  the  Bolshevist  Party  and  several  months  of 
Bolshevist  rule.  It  is  the  same  Lenine  and  the  same  Bolshevist 
movement  that  now  confront  us;  fundamental  change  in  a  year 
or  so  is  out  of  the  question.  The  fact  that  Gorky  preferred 
the  Bolshevists  to  the  Czarists,  rejoined  them  in  the  hope  of 
bringing  them  his  way,  and  is  now  more  optimistic  about 
them,  in  no  way  invalidates  the  permanent  historic  value  of 
his  earlier  character  sketches.  It  goes  to  show,  on  the  con- 
trary, that  they  were  written  without  prejudice.  The  rest  of 
our  evidence  indicates  that  they  apply  as  much  as  ever  to-day. 


22  SOVIETISM 

"The  Soviet  regime  presupposes,  it  seems  to  me, 
a  relatively  advanced  social  and  political  education 
among  the  workmen  and  peasants.  In  the  absence 
of  this  indispensable  preparation  it  runs  the  chance 
of  ending,  even  more  easily  than  the  bourgeois  par- 
liamentary regime,  either  in  anarchy  or  in  the 
tyranny  of  a  handful  of  men.  But  this  handful, 
blindly  followed  by  the  crude  masses,  which  are 
moved  only  by  appetites  and  emotions,  can  scarcely 
maintain  their  authority,  or  more  accurately,  pre- 
serve their  power,  except  in  proportion  as  they  give 
their  consent  more  and  more  to  proletarian  appetites 
and  emotions/ ' 

As  Gorky  said  in  his  newspaper,  "Lenine  does  not 
know  the  people.  But  he  does  know — from  his  books — 
how  to  arouse  the  masses  and  how  to  excite  their  worst 
instincts." 


CHAPTER  IV 

WHAT  ARE  THE  BOLSHEVIKI  FIGHTING  FOR* 

They  are  fighting  to  overthrow  democracy.  Democ- 
racy, or  government  by  a  changing  majority,  which, 
respects  minorities  because  it  knows  it  may  itself  be  a 
minority  to-morrow,  is  the  deadly  foe  both  of  the  per- 
manent dictatorship  of  any  sect  and  of  the  establishment 
and  fixation  of  any  social  system  by  means  of  the  tempo- 
rary dictatorship  of  any  sect. 

The  Bolsheviki  are  not  fighting  at  present 
against  capitalism;  on  the  contrary  they  are 
ready  to  make  peace  with  Kaisers  and  capital- 
ists in  order  to  secure  the  sinews  of  war  to  carry 
on  their  fight  against  democracy ; 
against  private  property,  on  the  contrary  they 
are  ready  greatly  to  extend  the  private  property 
both  of  peasants  and  of  foreign  capitalists  in 
Russia ; 

against  class  rule;  they  preferred  class-ruled  Ger- 
many to  the  democracies  where  class  rule  is  least 
in  evidence. 

The  Bolshevist  high-priests  still  profess  the  abolition 
of  capitalism,  private  property,  and  class  rule.  They 
claim  they  have  guaranteed  private  possession  to  the 
peasants,  offered  private  capital  greater  concessions  than 
did  the  Czarism,  and  established  Bolshevik  party  dicta- 

23 


24  SOVIETISM 

torship  or  class  rule  only  temporarily.  They  say — and 
being  fanatics,  doubtless  believe  it  themselves — that  they 
will  ultimately  use  all  these  forces  to  destroy  capital- 
ism, private  property  and  class  rule.  Some  of  them  ex- 
pect very  early  revolutions  to  relieve  them  of  all  their 
present  pledges  and  concessions.  But  if  these  revolu- 
tions do  not  come? 

Moreover  there  have  already  been  many  subtle  and 
profound  changes  in  the  Bolshevist's  "doctrines" — for 
he  claims  the  right  to  indefinite  change,  according  to  a 
new  logic  and  an  idea  of  "facts"  beyond  the  reach  of 
the  non-Bolshevist  intelligence.  Not  only  may  teach- 
ings continue  to  change,  but  also  the  personnel  at  the 
head  of  the  sect  and  the  dictatorship.  Even  less  than 
others,  then,  can  the  Bolshevists  be  judged  by  their 
words  alone — whether  these  words  be  regarded  as  those 
of  sincere  fanatics  or  of  charlatans.  They  must  be 
judged  by  their  acts.  And  what  are  the  Soviets  doing, 
constructing,  creating — not  in  words  or  ukases,  but  in 
fact?  Leaving  all  disputed  details  aside  they  have  two 
— and  only  two — great  social  structures  to  their  credit 
(or  discredit),  the  Red  Army  and  the  despotic  Bolshe- 
vist Party  bureaucracy  that  governs  the  country — both 
institutions  by  their  very  nature  opposed  to  democracy 
and  making  for  a  continuation  of  class  rule  either  by 
Bolshevists  or  by  the  next  social  group  that  gains  con- 
trol of  them.  Soviets  are  dissolved  or  fail  to  meet,  are 
elected  according  to  orders  and  act  according  to  direc- 
tions (see  below) — the  Red  Army  and  the  administrative 
bureaucracy,  under  Bolshevist  Party  orders,  continue 
in  control. 

Soviet  "Democracy." — The  Soviets  sometimes  offer 
Sovietism  as  democracy,  but  a  democracy  which  they 


SOVIETISM  AND  THE  BOLSHEVIKI        25 

themselves  state  is  diametrically  opposed  to  everything 
the  world  has  known  under  that  name.  In  other  words 
they  repudiate  and  attack  democracy,  as  the  world  has 
developed  it  (whether  in  Anglo-Saxon  or  Latin  coun- 
tries, Switzerland,  Scandinavia  or  China),  but  claim  the 
name,  at  times,  for  their  anti-democratic  doctrine. 

Their  entire  literature  shows  this  position.  Often 
democracy  is  repudiated  as  being  a  "bourgeois"  idea 
and  practice.  But  sometimes  a  doctrine  of  "proletar- 
ian" democracy  is  put  forth — as  in  the  first  Manifesto 
of  the  Bolshevist  world  organization,  the  Communist 
(or  Third)  Internationale,  founded  at  Moscow  in  March, 
1919.  The  references  to  democracy  in  this  document, 
which  was  signed,  for  Russian  Communism,  by  Lenine, 
Trotzky,  and  Zinoviev,  are  as  follows  (we  quote  from 
the  reproduction  given  by  the  pro- Soviet  American  So- 
cialist Party  in  its  "Labor"  Year  Book) : 

1 '  When  the  proletariat  comes  into  power  it  merely 
confirms  the  utter  impossibility  of  making  use  of 
the  methods  of  bourgeois  democracy  (i.  e.,  the  meth- 
ods of  any  and  all  existing  democratic  governments 
— ed.).  It  creates  conditions  and  forms  for  a  new 
and  higher  workmen 's  democracy. ' ' 

The  document  then  proceeds  to  defend  the  methods 
of  "workmen's  democracy" — which  is  defined  as  the 
Soviet  system  as  practised  in  Russia — on  the  ground 
that  "it  is  a  question  of  life  and  death"  between  the 
workers  and  the  bourgeoisie  or  middle  class. 

All  existing  democratic  governments  are  character- 
ized as  imperialistic:  "The  collapse  of  the  imperialist 
state,  from  the  Czarist  to  the  most  democratic,  is  pro- 
ceeding."    Bourgeois  monarchy  and  bourgeois  democ- 


26  SOVIETISM 

racy — i.e.,  all  non-communist  democracy — are  the  same ; 
in  either  case  the  masses  must  rise  *  *  against  monarchical 
or  democratic  bureaucracy." 

Whatever  gains  had  been  won  throughout  history  by 
democratic  parliaments  have  now  been  wholly  and 
utterly  destroyed  by  the  war.  "This  imperialistic 
war  catastrophe  has  with  one  fell  swoop  swept  away 
all  the  gains  of  experts  and  parliamentary  struggles." 

Repudiation  of  Proletarian  Democracy  by  the  Com- 
munist International. — All  evidence  needed  to  show  that 
Bolshevism  regards  neither  the  proletariat  (when  it  is 
anti-communist)  nor  democracy — even  when  proletarian 
— is  given  by  the  publications  of  the  Third  International. 
Both  in  Lenine  's  ' '  call ' '  and  in  the  manifesto  the  world 's 
labor  unions  and  labor  parties  are  divided  into  three 
groups:  (1)  the  social-patriots,  who  supported  the  war, 
are  out  and  out  bourgeois;  (2)  the  Centre  also  belongs 
to  the  enemy  and  must  be  dealt  by  with  all  ruthlessness 
(this  includes  all  non-communist  and  ultra-radicals  and 
revolutionists)  ;  (3)  communists. 

Of  the  Socialists  who  are  trying  to  restore  the  merely 
Socialist  International  it  is  said  in  the  Manifesto :  ' '  The 
fight  against  the  Socialist  Centre  is  a  necessary  factor 
in  the  fight  against  imperialism."  The  manifesto  then 
lists  this  Centre  as  including  "the  German  Independent 
Party,  the  present  majority  of  the  French  Party  (the 
Longuet  faction),  the  Independent  Labor  Party  of  Eng- 
land," some  of  the  most  revolutionary  organizations  of 
Europe — and  all  of  them  violently  pro-Soviet. 

But  the  bulk  of  the  world's  proletariat  is  repudiated 
in  the  denunciation  of  the  "social  patriots"  or  those 
who  supported  the  war  or  participate  in  present  day 
governments.     This  includes  not  only  whole  labor  par- 


SOVIETISM  AND  THE  BOLSHEVIKI        27 

ties,  like  those  of  England,  Austria,  and  Sweden,  but  the 
overwhelming  majority  of  the  labor  unionists  of  nearly 
every  country  of  the  globe — as  was  clearly  shown  at 
the  International  Labor  Union  Congress  at  Amsterdam 
in  August,  1919,  where  the  pro-Bolshevist  resolution 
was  voted  down  by  100  to  1. 

How  Lenine  Launched  Civil  War. — As  soon  as  the 
democratic  revolution  had  overthrown  Czarism  and  es- 
tablished a  people's  government  Lenine  declared  for  "a 
civil  war"  against  democracy.  He  said  that  the  world 
war  was  being  transformed  into  a  world-wide  revolution- 
ary civil  war.  When  the  Kaiser's  Government  sent  him 
across  Germany  into  Russia,  he  at  once  began  a  cam- 
paign for  ' '  a  permanent  state  of  revolution ' '  and  ' '  civil 
war,"  and  used  these  expressions  in  nearly  all  his 
speeches  and  writings  before  any  civil  disturbances  of 
this  character  had  begun.  For  Trotzky  and  others  who 
were  arrested  were  released  and  the  Bolshevist  press,  for 
a  long  time,  was  unmolested,  as  was  Lenine  himself. 
"World-wide  civil  war"  was  their  political  shibboleth. 

This  world-aim  of  the  Bolsheviki  is  stated  in  the  May 
Day  proclamation  last  year  of  the  Communist  "Inter- 
national," in  which  appeared  the  phrase: 

"Long  live  civil  war;  the  only  just  war,  in  which  the 
oppressed  class  fights  its  oppressors. ' ' 

A  more  recent  proclamation  declares : 

"Conquests  of  the  political  power  mean  not 
merely  a  change  in  personnel,  but  annihilation  of 
the  enemies'  apparatus  of  Government.  The  revolu- 
tionary era  compels  the  proletariat  to  make  use  of 
the  means  of  battle  which  will  concentrate  its  entire 
energies,  namely  mass  action,  with  its  logical  result- 
ant direct  conflict  with  the  government  machinery 
m  open  combat." 


28  SOVIBTISM 

It  was  only  when  the  Hungarian  Soviets  were  over- 
thrown, in  August,  1919,  that  Lenine  began  to  claim  that 
his  "civil  war"  was  purely  defensive. 

The  Character  of  the  Civil  War. — The  character  of 
this  civil  war  is  illustrated  daily  by  the  cables — from  a 
thousand  different  sources.  It  is  also  characterized  by 
the  numerous  Bolshevist  orders  that  have  been  published. 
Here  is  an  example: 

The  official  order  of  the  Commandant  of  the  Forti- 
fied District  of  Petrograd  (The  "Izvestia"  of  the  Petro- 
grad  Soviet  of  Workmen's  and  Red  Army  Deputies  No. 
185,  August  16,  1919)  : 

"I  warn  all  that  in  the  event  of  repeated  cases  of 
arson,  I  will  not  hesitate  to  adopt  extreme  measures, 
including  the  shooting  of  the  bourgeoisie 's  hostages, 
in  view  of  the  fact  that  all  the  White  Guards'  plots 
directed  against  the  proletarian  state  must  be  re- 
garded not  as  the  crime  of  individuals,  but  as  the 
offense  of  the  entire  enemy  class. 

Signed :  Acting  Commandant  of  the  Fortified  Dis- 
trict of  Petrograd,  B.  Kozlovsky." 

A  civil  war  of  massacre  is  being  conducted  not  only 
against  "bourgeois  democrats"  but  also  against  radical 
and  revolutionary  socialists,  as  we  see  in  the  following 
extracts  from  the  order  of  Djerjinsky,  President  of  the 
All-Russian  Extraordinary  Commission  for  Fighting  the 
Counter-Revolution : 

1 '  The  Left  Social  Revolutionaries  and  Mensheviks 
that  have  been  arrested  will  be  considered  hostages 
and  their  fate  will  depend  upon  the  conduct  of  these 
two  parties." 

— Russkaya  Zhisn,  May  10,  1919. 


SOVIETISM  AND  THE  BOLSHEVIKI        29 

Just  as  the  German  junkers  used  the  phrase  ' '  military 
necessity ' '  to  cover  military  practices  and  atrocities  that 
had  been  abolished  for  centuries,  so  the  Soviets  use  the 
phrase  "revolutionary  necessity." 

The  order  quoted  is  simply  carrying  out  the  policy  of 
"mass  terror"  against  all  formidable  opponents,  as 
preached  by  the  official  Bolshevist  leaders  from  the  be- 
ginning. The  following  official  Soviet  telegram  dated 
September  2,  1918,  justifies  mass  terror  as  a  reprisal, 
but  also  refers  to  the  fact  that  it  had  been  previously 
adopted  by  the  Soviets: 

"Notwithstanding  frequent  pronouncements  urg- 
ing mass  terror  against  the  Socialist  Revolutionaries, 
White  Guards  and  bourgeoisie,  no  real  terror  exists. 
Such  a  situation  should  decidedly  be  stopped.  End 
should  be  put  to  weakness  and  softness.  All  Right 
Socialist-Revolutionaries  known  to  local  Soviets 
should  be  arrested  immediately.  Numerous  hostages 
should  be  taken  from  the  bourgeois  and  other  classes. 
At  the  slightest  attempt  to  resist  or  the  slightest 
movement  among  the  White  Guards,  mass  shooting 
should  be  applied  at  once.  Initiative  in  this  matter 
rests  especially  with  the  local  executive  committees." 


CHAPTER  V 

WHAT  IS  THE  CHIEF  SOVIET  WEAPON? 

The  chief  Bolshevik  weapon  is  ruthlessness.  Acknowl- 
edging no  principle  but  devotion  to  their  sect  and  ex- 
pecting no  reward  except  as  their  sect  grows  in  power, 
these  fanatics  permit  themselves  any  act  and  any 
statement  that  seems  to  serve  their  purpose.  Lenine  and 
his  followers  are  all  avowed  disciples  of  Macchiavelli. 
The  Reign  of  Terror  is  their  method  in  the  physical 
sphere.  In  the  intellectual  sphere  their  statements  are 
made  (in  good  conscience)  solely  to  create  a  desired  im- 
pression and  without  regard  for  the  facts,  except  as  facts 
must  be  regarded  to  create  the  impression  desired. 

The  Bolsheviki  do  not  deny 

the   Reign   of    Terror    (they   boasted   of   it — in 

Russia)  ; 

nor  the  Propaganda — which  despises  facts,  logic, 

and    principles    (whatever   irks   them   is   called 

"bourgeois"  logic,  principle,  and  fact). 

The  Reign  of  Terror. — The  Bolsheviki  do  not  deny 
the  Reign  of  Terror.  Sometimes  they  use  it  as  a  threat, 
as  when  "Soviet  Russia,"  the  organ  of  "Ambassador" 
Martens,  declares  that  if  the  Entente  does  not  change 
its  policy  there  may  follow  "total  extermination  of  the 
Russian  bourgeoisie."  This  extermination  is  sometimes 
to  be  by  the  "exasperated  masses,"  not  by  direct  order. 

30 


SOVIETISM  AND  THE  BOLSHEVIKI        31 

But  we  have  quoted  some  direct  orders  in  the  preceding 
chapter,  and  the  entire  Bolshevist  propaganda  is  aimed 
to  create  popular  exasperation  to  the  very  highest  de- 
gree— using  any  and  all  methods  for  the  purpose. 

Sometimes  they  apologize  for  the  "terror" — but  the 
apologies  contradict.  Radek,  for  example,  says  that  the 
terror  was  necessary,  not  for  defense,  but  in  order  to 
secure  a  minority  dictatorship : 

"/  am  one  who  does  not  deny  that  there  has  been 
terror  in  Russia.  The  government  had  to  adopt  dras- 
tic measures  to  keep  the  hungering,  disgruntled, 
war-weary  millions  in  leash."  (Interview  above 
quoted.) 

The  Bolshevist  leaders  do  not,  as  a  rule,  undertake 
to  disguise  or  hide  the  fact  that  they  maintain  their 
dictatorship  largely  by  terror.  In  a  signed  article  in 
the  "Izvestia"  of  January  10,  1919,  Trotzky  explains 
himself  very  clearly: 

"By  its  terror  against  saboteurs  the  proletariat 
does  not  at  all  say :  '  I  shall  wipe  out  all  of  you  and 
get  along  without  specialists.'  Such  a  program 
would  be  a  program  of  hopelessness  and  ruin.  While 
dispersing,  arresting  and  shooting  saboteurs  and  con- 
spirators, the  proletariat  says:  '/  shall  break  your 
will,  because  my  will  is  stronger  than  yours,  and  I 
shall  force  you  to  serve  me.'  .  .  .  Terror  as  the  dem- 
onstration of  the  will  and  strength  of  the  working 
class,  is  historically  justified,  precisely  because  the 
proletariat  was  able  thereby  to  break  the  political 
will  of  the  Intelligentsia,  pacify  the  professional 
men  of  various  categories  and  work,  and  gradually 
subordinate  them  to  its  own  aims  within  the  field 
of  their  specialties." 


32  SOVIETISM 

In  his  speech  to  national  Soviet  Congress  at  Moscow 
(January,  1920)  Lenine  cynically  betrayed  the  true  and 
fundamental  ground  of  the  reign  of  terror — admitting 
it  at  the  same  time  to  be  basic.  He  declared  (according 
to  the  friendly  Lincoln  Eyre) : 

"Every  victory  we  secure  on  the  basis  of  this 
terror  will  result  in  that  we  shall  eventually  be  able 
to  dispense  with  this  form  of  convincing  the 
peasantry." 

The  fact  that  Lenine  facetiously  refers  to  his  system  of 
governmental  violence  as  parallel  with  the  propaganda — 
both  "a  form  of  convincing" — is  highly  significant,  for 
it  is  a  confession  that  it  is  by  physical  and  psychological 
violence  that  he  maintains  his  power  among  the  peas- 
antry (90  per  cent,  of  Soviet  Russia).  Our  quotations 
seem  to  indicate  that  this  is  the  basis  of  his  power  in 
the  cities  also.  Certainly  when  the  people  are  once  thor- 
oughly subdued  and  filled  exclusively  with  the  official 
Bolshevist  picture  of  the  world  they  will  be  easier  to 
control,  as  Lenine  indicates. 

In  a  "Report  on  Bourgeois  and  Proletarian  Democ- 
racies" (Petrograd  "Pravda,"  March  8,  1919),  Lenine 
says  that  the  "dictatorship  of  the  proletariat"  is  a 
permanent  principle  of  Soviet  rule  and  then  that  all 
socialists  who  are  not  communists  commit  treason  to  the 
proletariat,  a  capital  offence  in  Soviet  Russia,  and,  as 
quotations  in  Chapter  IV  show,  an  ample  ground  for 
the  terror.    Says  Lenine: 

"The  essence  of  the  Soviet  authority  consists  in 
this,  that  the  permanent  and  sole  basis  of  all  State 
authority,  of  the  entire  apparatus  of  government,  is 
the  mass  organization  precisely  of  those  classes  which 


SOVIETISM  AND  THE  BOLSHEVIKI        33 

were  oppressed  by  capitalism,  that  is,  of  the  work- 
men and  of  the  half -proletarians  (peasants  who  did 
not  exploit  the  labor  of  another  and  constantly  had 
to  sell  at  least  a  portion  of  their  labor  strength).'' 
"That  which  the  socialists  do  not  understand, 
which  constitutes  their  theoretic  near-sightedness, 
their  submission  to  bourgeois  prejudices  and  their 
political  treason  with  respect  to  the  proletariat,  is 
the  following :  In  a  political  society  wherever  there 
is  any  serious  sharpening  of  class  struggle  which  is 
included  in  its  very  structure,  there  can  be  no 
middle  course  between  dictatorship  of  the  bour- 
geoisie or  dictatorship  of  the  proletariat." 

Nor  does  Lenine  always  excuse  his  civil  war  as  defen- 
sive even  to-day.  His  address  to  American  working- 
men,  the  text  of  which  was  admitted  by  Martens  to  be 
genuine,  said: 

"In  reality  the  class-struggle  in  revolutionary 
times  has  always  inevitably  taken  on  the  form  of  a 
civil  war,  and  civil  war  is  unthinkable  without  the 
worst  kind  of  destruction,  without  terror  and  limita- 
tions on  the  form  of  democracy  in  the  interest  of 
war.  One  must  be  a  sickly  sentimentalist  not  to  be 
able  to  see,  to  understand  and  appreciate  this  ne- 
cessity. 

"The  class-struggle  is  permanent.  We  are  living 
in  revolutionary  times.  In  order  to  fight  the  class- 
struggle  effectively  in  such  times,  in  order  to  get 
power  and  keep  it,  civil  war,  terrorism,  etc.,  are  nec- 
essary.   Here  is  the  whole  doctrine. ' ' 

A  favorite  and  apparently  unconscious  trick  of  the 
Bolshevist  mind  is  to  play  fast  and  loose  with  all  terms — 
even  their  own — using  them  in  contradictory  senses  for 
different  occasions — after  having  defined  them  very 
definitely  in  their  dogmas.    They  do  this  with  all  their 


34  SOVIETISM 

terms, ' ' proletariat,  "*'  dictatorship, ' '  etc.,  as  the  present 
volume  shows.  For  example  take  this  reference  to  ' '  the 
terror"  by  Lenine — from  his  speech  at  the  1920  Soviet 
Congress : 

"We  say  that  terror  was  forced  upon  us.  They 
forget  that  terrorism  was  forced  upon  us  by  the  in- 
vasion of  the  all-powerful  Entente.  Is  it  not  terror 
when  a  world  fleet  blockades  a  starving  country  ?  Is 
is  not  terror  when  foreign  representatives  relying 
on  their  alleged  diplomatic  inviolability  organize 
White  Guard  revolts  ? ' ' 

Here  Lenine  makes  terror,  which  he  and  his  co-workers 
employ,  as  we  do,  in  the  sense  of  "terrorism"  and  "reign 
of  terror"  identical  with  the  use  of  the  "force"  of  war 
or  of  law  and  order,  the  pressure  of  a  blockade,  or  even 
revolt.  The  point  is  that  he  justifies  the  use  of  terror 
against  revolt — and  then  pretends  that  this  means  only 
the  enforcement  of  order.  The  real  Bolshevist  theory 
and  practice  of  terror  is  illustrated  elsewhere  in  this 
volume.  If  the  mere  enforcement  of  order  were  ever 
meant,  even  in  one  instance,  why  the  use  of  this  very 
forceful  word,  which  means  to  everybody — including  the 
Bolsheviki — something  quite  different? 

Gorky  calls  the  "defensive"  argument  "a  pretty 
phrase."  Early  in  the  civil  war  instituted  by  Lenine, 
Gorky  wrote  (in  the  Novaya  Zhisn) : 

"The  revolutionary  army  garrison  at  Sebastopol 
has  already  undertaken  the  last  final  struggle  with 
the  bourgeoisie.  Without  much  ado  they  decided 
simply  to  massacre  all  the  bourgeoisie  who  lived  with- 
in their  reach.  They  decided  and  did  it.  At  first 
they  massacred  the  inhabitants  of  the  two  most  bour- 
geois streets  in  Sebastopol ;  then  the  same  operation, 
in  spite  of  the  resistance  of  the  local  Soviet,  was 


SOVIETISM  AND  THE  BOLSHEVIKI        35 

extended  to  Simferopol,  and  then  the  turn  came  of 
Eupatoria. 

"Apparently  similar  radical  methods  of  class  war 
will  soon  be  applied  to  Greater  Russia. 

1 '  In  Russia  conscience  is  dead.  The  Russian  peo- 
ple, in  fact,  have  lost  all  sense  of  right  and  wrong. 
'Pillage  whatever  there  is  to  pillage.'  Such  is  the 
motto  of  the  two  groups  of  Bolsheviki.  The  Red 
Guards,  constituted  to  attack  the  counter-revolution- 
aries, shoot  without  trial  any  one  whom  they  sus- 
pect. Pillage  in  all  its  forms  is  the  only  thing  which 
is  organized.  In  Petrograd  every  Bolshevik  citizen 
may  share  in  the  spoil." 

Similar  methods  were  soon  applied  to  all  Russia,  as 
the  order  of  September  2,  1918 — above  quoted — shows. 
Gorky  continues: 

"For  the  period  of  the  revolution  ten  thousand 
lynchings  have  already  been  accounted  for.  This  is 
how  democracy  is  meting  out  judgment  upon  those 
who  have  in  some  way  sinned  against  the  new  order. 

1 '  During  the  days  of  the  progress  of  drunkenness 
human  beings  were  shot  down  like  dogs  and  the  cold- 
blooded destruction  of  human  lives  came  to  be  a 
commonplace  daily  occurrence.  In  the  newspaper 
•  'Pravda'  the  pogroms  of  the  drunken  mobs  are  writ- 
ten up  as  the  'provocative  acts  of  the  bourgeois' 
which  is  clearly  a  misrepresentation,  the  employment 
of  a  pretty  phrase  which  can  only  lead  to  the  fur- 
ther shedding  of  blood." 

The  Soviet  officials  have  at  times  decided,  as  long  as 
resistance  continued,  to  exterminate  their  serious  ene- 
mies by  direct  order  and  execution — as  we  see  in  a 
decree  of  the  All-Russian  Extraordinary  Commission 
for  Fighting  the  Counter-Revolution,  dated  February 
22,  1918  (Krasnaya  Gazeta,  official  Soviet  organ,  Febru- 
ary 23,  1918) : 


36  SOVIETISM 

"The  All-Russian  Extraordinary  Commission, 
acting  in  conformity  with  the  ordinances  of  the 
Council  of  People 's  Commissaries,  sees  no  other  way 
to  combat  counter-revolutionists,  speculators,  ma- 
rauders, hooligans,  obstructionists,  and  other  para- 
sites, except  by  pitiless  destruction  at  the  place  of 
the  crime." 

The  American  Consul  General  at  Moscow  on  Septem- 
ber 3,  1918,  quoted  the  official  press  to  show  that  this 
policy  was  being  extended  to  still  another  class,  namely, 
hostages : 

"In  connection  with  the  murder  of  Uritzky,  five 
hundred  persons  have  been  shot  by  order  of  the 
Petrograd  Extraordinary  Commission  to  Combat 
Counter-Revolution.  The  names  of  the  persons  shot 
and  those  of  candidates  for  future  shooting  in  case 
of  a  new  attempt  on  the  lives  of  the  Soviet  leaders, 
will  be  published  later." 

The  hostages,  however,  have  proven  more  valuable 
when  executed  on  a  less  wholesale  plan,  and  only  in 
part.  Extermination  for  revenge  would  have  deprived 
the  Soviets  not  only  of  a  means  of  controlling  Socialists 
and  Democrats  (see  Chapter  IV)  but  of  their  new  device 
for  maintaining  military  discipline,  both  of  privates 
and  of  officers,  as  we  see  in  the  following  Bolshevist  news 
items : 

The  "Krasnaya  Gazeta"  (Red  Gazette)  of  No- 
vember 4,  1919,  publishes  a  preliminary  list  of  the 
Red  Army  officers  who  have  gone  over  to  the  Whites. 

1.)  Khomutov,  D.  C. — Brother  and  mother  ar- 
rested. 

2.)  Piatnitzky,  D.  A. — Mother,  sister  and  brother 
arrested. 

3.)     Postnov — Mother  and  sister  arrested. 


SOVIETISM  AND  THE  BOLSHEVIKI        37 

4.)  Agalakov,  A.  M. — Wife,  father  and  mother 
arrested. 

5.)     Haratkviech,  B. — Wife  and  sister  arrested. 

7.)     Kostylev,  V.  I. — Wife  and  brother  arrested. 

8.)  Smyrnov,  A.  A. — Mother,  sister  and  father 
arrested. 

9.)    .Chebykin — Wife  arrested. 

"Abandonment"  of  Reign  of  Terror. — It  was  only 
on  January  22,  1920,  that  the  Soviets  issued  a  proclama- 
tion claiming  the  official  abandonment  of  the  terror. 
This  pronouncement  acknowledges  the  free  use  of  the 
terror  up  to  that  moment.  It  therefore  shows  that  the 
many  previous  statements  of  Soviet  leaders  and  organs 
that  terrorism  had  been  abandoned  were  untrue — re- 
ports which  were  supported  by  nearly  every  foreign 
correspondent  admitted  into  Soviet  Russia,  all  of  whom 
were  accepted  in  advance  as  satisfactory  to  the  Soviets. 
The  Soviets  also  fail  completely  to  substantiate  the  many 
defenses  put  up  for  them  that  their  terrorism  waa 
"mild."  Mild  terror  is  a  contradiction  in  terms,  and 
the  Bolshevist  leaders'  statements  all  emphasize  the  se- 
verity and  ruthlessness  of  their  terror — a  policy  that  is 
not  changed  in  the  above  mentioned  pronouncement, 
since — as  it  declares — the  terror  may  be  resumed.  The 
leading  phrases  in  this  statement,  which  is  signed  by 
Lenine,  Kamenev,  and  Djerjinsky,  are  the  following: 

"The  revolution,  the  proletariat  and  the  Govern- 
ment of  Soviet  Russia  remark  with  satisfaction  that 
the  crushing  of  the  armed  forces  of  the  counter- 
revolution gives  them  the  opportunity  to  lay  aside 
the  arm  of  terror.  Only  the  renewal  of  the  Entente's 
attempts  by  means  of  armed  intervention  of  ma- 
terial support  of  rebellious  Czarist  Generals  to 
shatter,  the  power  of  the  Soviets  and  to  interrupt 


38  SOVIETISM 

pacific  labor  of  the  workers  and  peasants  for  the 
construction  of  a  Socialist  regime  can  render  obliga- 
tory a  return  to  the  terror.  Consequently  the  re- 
sponsibility for  a  possible  future  return  to  this 
severe  weapon  will  fall  entirely  and  exclusively  on 
the  governments  and  ruling  classes  of  the  Entente 
and  upon  their  friends,  capitalists  and  landed  pro- 
prietors of  Russia." 

The  new  afterthought  claim  that  the  terror  was  defen- 
sive is  dealt  with  above.  Let  us  look  at  the  other  argu- 
ments. 

Thus  for  how  long  terrorism  is  "abandoned"  we  can- 
not say.  The  sword,  let  us  recall  again,  was  forced  into 
the  Kaiser's  hands. 

But  how  far  is  the  terror  abandoned?  True,  it  has 
accomplished  its  purpose  temporarily  and  all  efforts  to 
set  up  a  democratically  elected  national  assembly  are 
held  in  abeyance.  History  shows  no  record  of  a  regime 
set  up  by  violence  that  has  retained — on  a  large  and 
costly  scale — more  violence  than  enough  to  retain  its 
power.  But  the  Red  Army  still  rules  large  territories 
by  terror,  the  soldiers  of  that  army  being  forced  to  mili- 
tarized labor  by  violence,  Djerjinsky's  All-Russian  Re- 
volutionary Tribunal  continues,  and — as  the  friendly 
Lincoln  Eyre,  who  reports  this  document  in  the  New 
York  World,  admits,  "What  we  know  as  constitutional 
guarantees  which  safeguard  a  man  *s  life  and  liberty  are 
lacking  altogether.  There  is  neither  habeas  corpus  nor 
trial  by  jury."  These  are  the  only  sure  guarantees 
evolved  by  human  experience.  What  hocus-pocus  could 
replace  them?  Eyre  says  only  that  the  prisoner  must 
be  accused  of  something  or  other  and  is  now  allowed  the 
privilege  of  speaking  in  his  own  defense ! 


SOVIETISM  AND  THE  BOLSHEVIKI         39 

Even  should  the  Soviets  permanently  and  completely 
abandon  the  terror,  that  would  not  change  their  respon- 
sibility. Assume  they  suddenly  and  totally  reformed 
on  January  22,  when  was  the  statute  of  limitations  for 
such  offenses  as  theirs  made  to  run  only  a  few  months? 
Further,  if  the  terror,  as  they  now  avow,  was  used  to 
extend  their  regime,  then  their  regime  remains  to-day, 
to  that  extent,  based  on  a  reign  of  terror,  a  rule  not  by 
the  mere  violence  of  superior  force — which  is  evil  enough 
— but  by  violence  deliberately  organized  to  create  fear. 

Even  if  the  terror  is  officially  abandoned  we  still  have 
rule  by  a  self-declared  dictatorship,  the  dictatorship  of 
the  "proletariat"  with  judicial  processes  to  correspond. 
What  are  these  processes? 

(1)  For  those  who  seriously  attack  the  Soviet  regime 
and  attempt  to  establish  popular  rule  as  in  the  United 
States,  "trial"  by  Revolutionary  Tribunal,  which — ac- 
cording to  its  most  able  apologists,  like  Lincoln  Eyre,  is  a 
"court  martial."  Yet  Eyre  points  out  there  is  no  dis- 
order in  Petrograd  and  other  places,  where  these  Tri- 
bunals are  held,  to  justify  such  methods — if  we  admit 
that  they  are  no  worse  than  a  court  martial  in  Paris  ( !) 
as  he  implies. 

(2)  For  ordinary  offenders,  trial  by  informal  self- 
conscious  "proletarian"  tribunals,  or  People's  Courts. 
Here  is  the  heart  of  Eyre's  account: 

"People's  Courts  are  bound  to  be  guided  by  the 
Soviet  Government's  laws  and  decrees.  But  as  the 
code  is  far  from  complete,  Judges  ( !)  are  obliged 
not  only  to  apply  but  to  create  the  law  in  which,  ac- 
cording to  the  People's  Commissaries'  ruling,  they 
are  to  be  governed  '  by  a  sense  of  Socialist  conception 
of  right. '    This  is  usually  translated  to  mean  that  a 


40  SOVIETISM 

manual  laborer  should  be  treated  with  greater  leni- 
ency than  anybody  else.  Certainly  the  poorest  and 
most  ignorant  folk  have  a  better  show  before  a  peo- 
ple's Judge  than  any  other  petitioners  or  defend- 
ants. Often,  however,  a  Soviet  jurist  ( !)  faced  with 
the  necessity  of  improvising  a  law  will  call  for  opin- 
ions from  persons  connected  with  the  ease,  or  even 
from  spectators  in  the  courtroom.  Sometimes  he 
will  even  take  a  vote  of  those  present  to  determine 
some  knotty  point." 

Our  apologist  acknowledges  that  the  Soviets'  decrees, 
promulgated  hastily  after  a  total  scorn  of  all  previous 
experience,  are  "incomplete."  Is  it  not  inevitable  that 
they  should  also  be  confused  and  inconsistent?  Civ- 
ilized peoples  have  known  what  a  "sense  of  right"  is — 
from  the  days  of  Confucius  and  Buddha,  if  not  earlier. 
But  what  is  "a  Socialist  conception  of  right,"  espe- 
cially in  the  minds  of  the  ignorant,  unless  a  repudiation 
of  previous  human  experience  ?  As  to  law  ' '  improvised ' ' 
by  ignorant  spectators  and  even  by  persons  connected 
with  the  case,  what  needs  be  said,  except  that  such  law 
will  be  especially  barbarous  under  a  government  calling 
itself  a  dictatorship,  based  upon  official  propaganda, 
publicly  preaching  the  righteousness  of  terrorism  as  a 
weapon  both  of  offense  and  defense,  and  renouncing  most 
human  institutions  and  all  political  and  legal  institutions 
preceding  it  or  existing  in  other  countries. 

Starvation  as  a  Means  of  Government. — Lincoln 
Eyre,  a  sympathetic  correspondent,  given  all  opportuni- 
ties by  Lenine,  describes  (in  the  New  York  World  of 
March  6,  1920)  the  six  principal  food  categories  into 
which  the  population  is  divided.  It  will  be  noticed  that 
the  distribution  is  only  partly  according  to  needs,  and 


SOVIETISM  AND  THE  BOLSHEVIKI        41 

largely   according   to   political    considerations.      These 
categories  are  as  follows: 

1.  Dependents  of  soldiers  get  even  more  to  eat  than 
the  heavy  workers,  it  being  the  Government's  first  con- 
cern to  keep  its  soldiers — who  are,  of  course,  fed  quite 
separately  from  the  civilian  population — and  their  fam- 
ilies contented. 

2.  The  railroad  workers  and  workers  in  heavy  indus- 
tries receive  a  supplementary  labor  ration.  Among  heavy 
industries  are  rated  textile,  metallurgic,  timber,  tobacco, 
optical,  printing,  building,  electrical,  leather  factories 
as  well  as  communal  kitchens  and  post  offices  ( !)  The 
labor  ration  is  also  received  by  certain  messengers  of  the 
food  commissariat,  controllers  of  harvest  and  communal 
kitchens,  grave  diggers  and  road  menders. 

3.  Mothers  caring  for  babies  under  one  year  old  also 
draw  a  supplementary  ration,  less  comprehensive,  how- 
ever, than  that  for  the  physical  laborers. 

4.  Manual  laborers,  the  wives,  children  and  aged  or 
incapacitated  parents  of  the  Red  Army  soldiers  and  re- 
sponsible Soviet  officials  "working  under  conditions  of 
the  intellectual  strain  of  unlimited  time";  postal,  tele- 
graph, telephone,  drug  store,  communal  kitchen  and 
hospital  employees ;  all  transport  workers,  mothers  nurs- 
ing babies,  housewives  caring  for  the  wants  of  a  family 
of  three  or  more  persons,  and  the  maimed  or  otherwise 
incapacitated  soldiers  or  workers. 

5.  Employees  of  such  private,  commercial  or  industrial 
enterprises  as  still  exist ;  students  of  schools  or  colleges 
over  sixteen  years  old  and  members  of  the  liberal  profes- 
sions who  belong  to  labor  unions  (there  are  now  unions 
for  all  the  professions,  even  for  artists  and  poets) . 


42  SOVIETISM 

6.  Persons  living  on  unearned  income,  professional  men 
not  members  of  labor  unions  and  all  others  not  other- 
wise specifically  mentioned  elsewhere  comprise  the  bour- 
geois category. 

There  is  also  a  group  of  categories  for  children  under 
sixteen,  the  ration  varying  according  to  age.  But  chil- 
dren are  also  discriminated  against  (see  class  4  above). 
The  Red  Guard  children  also  (category  1)  are  apparently 
given  a  special  ration  as  "  dependents. " 

The  extra  ration  of  heavy  workers  and  mothers  with 
children  are  the  only  ones  that  can  be  justified  on  the 
ground  of  special  need.  Red  Guards  might  be  justly 
in  the  same  class,  but  they  are  given  a  higher  ration. 
Nearly  all  the  other  classifications  also  are  purely  po- 
litical. The  bourgeoisie  may  be  supposed — in  some  cases 
— to  have  a  little  money  left  to  supplement  their  part 
ration,  or  to  go  to  work  and  join  a  proletarian  food 
category  when  they  have  no  money  left.  The  same 
might  be  supposed  of  category  5. 

The  listing  of  certain  classes  of  favored  proletarians, 
such  as  textile  and  post  office  employees  as  ' '  heavy  work- 
ers," is  clearly  political. 

In  a  word,  we  have  three  political  categories — aside 
from  the  two  bourgeois  classes  which  might  be  tempo- 
rarily explained  as  a  military  necessity  (in  view  of  the 
fearful  food  shortage  in  the  cities),  namely,  (1)  the  Red 
Guard;  (2)  favored  Bolshevist  or  pro-Bolshevist  occupa- 
tions; and  (3)  the  rest  of  the  manual  working  people. 

The  Bolshevists  first  justified  the  use  of  unequal  ra- 
tions for  the  purposes  of  political  warfare  as  a  measure 
against  the  bourgeoisie;  they  now  use  this  most  fearful 
of  all  weapons  (in  starving  regions)  indiscriminately 
either  to  reward  their  most  valued  supporters  or  to 


SOVIETISM  AND  THE  BOLSHEVIKI       43 

punish  even  the  neutral  or  lukewarm  proletarian  ele- 
ments. (See  their  ukase  against  illiteracy  in  the  follow- 
ing chapter.) 

A  wireless  dispatch  from  Moscow  dated  January  27, 
1920,  shows  that  the  settled  policy  of  partial  starvation 
— using  food  supplies  against  the  political  opponents  of 
the  Soviets — is  to  be  continued  in  the  form  of  favoring 
hundreds  of  thousands  of  members  of  the  immense  Soviet 
bureaucracy  as  well  as  the  million  odd  employees  of 
nationalized  industries: 

"As  a  result  of  Bolshevik  victories  and  the  prog- 
ress of  the  organization  of  food  supplies,"  the  dis- 
patch says,  "the  Soviet  Government  is  able  to  an- 
nounce an  increased  bread  ration  from  February  1 
of  one  Russian  pound  per  day  for  all  men  working 
eight  hours  per  day.  It  is  further  announced  that 
all  employees  of  the  Soviet  or  nationalized  establish- 
ments will  be  given  preference  in  distributing  ra- 
tions." 

Psychological  Ruthlessness. — The  entire  Soviet  propa- 
ganda exhibits  complete  indifference  to  truth.  For  ex- 
ample the  Bolshevist  press  has  published  literally  thou- 
sands of  reports  of  foreign  revolutions  which  had  no 
foundation.  So  accepted  is  the  use  of  falsehood — for 
Soviet  objects — that  no  explanations  whatever  are  of- 
fered and  no  efforts  made  to  correct  these  reports  after 
they  prove  untrue.  Thus  Soviet  Russia  believes  that  all 
countries  are  seething  with  revolution  and  aching  to 
establish  Soviets.  The  picture  presented  to  the  Russian 
public  of  present-day  England  and  America  no  more  fits 
these  countries  than  it  does  China  or  ancient  Egypt. 

The  deliberate  indifference  of  the  Bolsheviki  to  truth 
is  easiest  to  show  in  their  propaganda  about  foreign 


44  30VIETISM 

countries — which  we  can  test  by  our  own  direct  knowl- 
edge.   For  example: 

Lenine  said  in  a  speech  quoted  by  the  Severnaya 
Kommuna,  March  14,  1919,  ,that  the  bourgeoisie  was 
governing  all  countries  "exclusively  by  violence." 

"Pogroms  against  the  Bolsheviks  are  taking  place 
in  America. " — Report  by  Lenine,  Petrograd  Pravda, 
March  8,  1919. 

The  great  May  Day  manifesto  of  1919  declared  of 
the  war  that  "in  some  countries  almost  the  entire 
male  population  has  been  killed." 

"The  League  of  Nations  is  a  veritable  league  of 
murderers  or  bandits.  It  is  murdering  and  destroy- 
ing not  only  the  entire  nations  of  Hungary  and  Ger- 
many, but  even  those  nations  that  compose  it.  Its 
sole  object  is  the  restoration  of  monarchy  in  every 
land  where  it  has  been  swept  out  of  existence  by 
popular  waves."    (Our  italics.) — "Izvestia." 

Indicative  of  the  inexcusably  and  totally  false  ideas 
concerning  other  nations  which  are  being  handed  out  to 
the  ignorant  Russians  by  the  Soviet  leaders  is  the  cir- 
cumstantial interview  with  Lenine  by  Lincoln  Eyre  (pub- 
lished by  the  New  York  World,  February  20,  1920).  In 
this  interview,  which  is  presented  in  a  wholly  friendly 
spirit,  Lenine  is  quoted  as  saying: 

"Your  government  (the  United  States)  is  insti- 
tuting more  violently  repressive  measures  not  only 
against  the  Socialists  but  against  the  working-class 
in  general  than  any  other  government,  even  the  re- 
actionary French.  Apparently  it  is  persecuting 
foreigners.  And  yet  what  would  America  be  without 
her  foreign  workers?" 

The  Bolsheviki  do  not  take  even  their  own  decrees 
seriously.    Indeed  they  are  often  intended  as  propaganda 


SOVIETISM  AND  THE  BOLSHEVIKI        45 

rather  than  as  laws.  If  they  have  the  desired  result  in 
stirring  hatred  or  implanting  a  prejudice,  they  are  ap- 
proved by  the  Bolshevik  party.  They  have  no  other 
object.    For  example: 

"These  (village)  decrees,  which  in  actual  practice 
could  not  be  carried  out  immediately  and  fully,  have 
played  an  enormous  role  for  propaganda." 

— Lenine's  Report  to  8th  Congress  of  Russian 
Communist  (Bolshevist)  Party,  Petrograd  Pravda, 
April  5,  1919. 

The  all-important  role  of  "propaganda"  in  the  Bol- 
shevist scheme  for  capturing  the  world  is  sufficiently 
evidenced  when  even  some  of  the  most  vital  legislation 
is  drawn  up  largely,  if  not  primarily,  for  that  purpose. 


CHAPTER  VT 

TO  WHAT   IS   THE   POWER   OF   THE 
SOVIETS  DUE  ? 

Their  power  is  due  chiefly  to  exceptional  favoring  con- 
ditions :  to  the  utter  paralysis  of  a  great  nation  destroyed 
by  German  militarism  and  propaganda,  to  its  economic 
backwardness  and  the  ignorance  of  its  masses,  and  to 
the  unfamiliarity  of  the  rest  of  the  nations  with  this 
new  form  of  a  world  menace — against  which  they  have 
been  even  more  unprepared  than  they  were  against 
Prussianism. 

The  Bolsheviki  have  not  developed  any  superior- 
ity of  economic  organization, 
of  military  organization, 

of  government  (Sovietism  means  whatever  the 
Bolsheviki  want  it  to  mean  from  day  to  day), 
of  education  (the  Bolsheviki  do  not  deny  that 
they  regard  their  propaganda  as  education,  and 
have  transformed  the  schools  into  propaganda 
centers) . 

The  Soviet  constitution  contains  no  constructive  prin- 
ciple. It  is  entirely  absorbed  with  the  destruction  of 
the  social  structure.  The  preamble  unmistakably  de- 
clares: "It  is  necessary  to  destroy  the  existing  social 
structure. ' ' 

Gorky  thus  described  the  condition  of  the  foundation 

46 


SOVIETISM  AND  THE  BOLSHEVIKI         47 

of  Russian  life,  the  rural  structure,  in  1918  (in  his  news- 
paper) : 

"All  observers  of  the  village  to-day  are  unani- 
mously of  the  opinion  that  the  process  of  disintegra- 
tion and  demoralization  is  proceeding  there  with  ir- 
resistible force.  All  this  must  lead,  and  in  some 
places  has  already  led,  to  a  war  of  all  against  all, 
and  to  the  most  senseless  chaos  and  universal  de- 
struction and  murder." 

The  deterioration  predicted  did  continue,  as  we  see  in 
Gorky's  declaration  in  1919,  made  to  Frazier  Hunt,  a 
sympathetic  correspondent : 

"Bolshevism  and  revolution  must  run  their 
course,"  said  Gorky.  "There  can  be  no  short  cuts, 
no  compromises.  All  that  is  finest  in  art,  in  culture 
in  Russia,  all  that  has  been  built  up  with  such  pain 
and  sacrifice,  will  ultimately  be  destroyed.  The 
angry  peasant,  nursing  revenge  for  bitter  wrongs, 
which  he  believes  that  the  city  leaders  (the  Bolshe- 
viki)  have  inflicted  upon  him,  would  destroy  the 
very  life  of  those  cities.  He  will  revolt  until  the 
whole  country  is  thrown  into  anarchy.  Only  the 
strongest  will  live  through  this  terrible  period.  The 
peasant  through  sheer  brute  force  of  numbers  (de- 
mocracy) mill  take  over  the  Government  and  ruley 

The  Bolshevist  industrial  failure  is  admitted.  They 
endeavor  to  shift  the  blame  on  the  Czarism,  the  world 
war,  and  the  civil  strife.  Thus  the  question  becomes 
what  they  say  they  would  do  if  they  had  a  chance. 

The  Economic  Disorganization. — The  lifeblood  is  be- 
ing drained  from  Soviet  Russia  by  four  causes: 

1 — The  immense  cost  of  the  Red  Army,  the  backbone 
of  the  Soviet  revolution ; 

2 — The  high  cost  of  the  Soviet  government  with  its 


48  SOVIETISM 

padded    payroll    and    vast    propaganda    expenditures; 

3 — The  subsidies  of  most  of  the  leading  Soviet  indus- 
tries, which  do  not  even  meet  expenses;  and 

4 — The  aftermath  of  the  refusal  of  the  agriculturists 
(or  peasantry)  to  pay  all  these  bills  by  providing  food 
and  raw  materials  as  ' '  loans ' '  or  for  paper  money.  Sol- 
diers having  been  sent  to  every  village  to  expropriate 
"surplus"  products,  the  peasants  have  refused  to  plant 
or  to  labor  to  produce  a^ ' '  surplus. ' ' 

All  these  facts  are  amply  proved  from  Soviet  sources. 
Transport  facilities  are  only  a  fraction  of  what  is  needed. 
But  of  9,000  engines  in  Soviet  Russia  on  May  1,  1919, 
only  4,300  were  in  repair.  In  the  entire  month  of  March 
the  seven  largest  railway  shops  in  Moscow  built  only  10 
engines  and  250  cars. 

The  railroad  policy,  like  the  industrial  nationalization 
policy,  is  based  not  upon  industrial  or  food  needs  but 
upon  the  political  needs  of  the  Soviets. 

"Nationalization,"  Commissary  Rykov  confessed 
at  the  Congress  of  the  Soviets  of  Public  Economy, 
1 '  was  effected  independently  of  the  questions  of  sup- 
ply, of  economic  considerations,  but  aimed  exclu- 
sively at  a  direct  fight  with  the  bourgeoisie." 

As  a  result  the  railways  in  the  first  six  months  of  1919 
paid  for  only  one-fifth  of  what  they  cost,  and  the  nation- 
alized industries  for  little  more  than  one-half  their  cost. 
The  rest  was  a  Soviet  subsidy,  procured  chiefly  from  the 
plunder  of  the  peasantry  by  the  Red  Guard  expeditions 
sent  into  the  villages  (the  city  middle  classes  have  long 
ago  been  exhausted). 

The  transportation  crisis  complicates  the  fuel  crisis 
— for  the  temporary  occupation  of  the  chief  mining  cen- 


SOVIETISM  AND  THE  BOLSHEVIKI       49 

ters  by  the  civil  enemy,  the  destruction  of  the  mining 
machinery,  and  Soviet  management  crippled  the  coal 
mines  and  made  it  necessary  to  use  wood. 

Each  of  these  great  problems,  transport,  fuel,  and 
food,  depends  upon  the  other  two.  Industry  is,  of  course, 
crippled  by  this  situation,  which  means  still  another  un- 
favorable reaction  on  food,  fuel,  and  transport.  For 
example,  the  number  of  scythes  absolutely  indispensable 
for  the  production  of  food  in  the  summer  of  1919  was 
3,000,000,  while  there  was  only  one  works  with  a  daily 
output  of  600  scythes  to  offer  any  material  relief  to  the 
situation. 

Even  before  the  war  and  the  revolution,  the  agricul- 
tural equipment  and  methods  of  the  peasantry  were  the 
most  miserably  backward  in  Europe,  the  only  advanced 
agriculture  being  on  the  large  estates.  (See  the  author's 
Russia's  Message,  re-published  by  Knopf  in  1917.)  In- 
stead of  subdividing  these  in  an  orderly  manner,  as  ad- 
vocated by  the  other  parties,  the  Bolsheviki  encouraged 
such  peasants  as  were  fortunate  enough  to  be  near  any 
estate  (far  less  than  half  the  total  number)  to  seize 
everything  it  contained  and  divide  the  lands  without  any 
effort  at  justice  or  at  system.  When  the  Bolsheviki 
came  into  power  Russia  paid  the  penalty. 

' '  The  greater  part  of  the  private  lands,  and,  more- 
over, the  best  had  already  been  appropriated  by  the 
peasant,  so  that  the  Soviet  organizations  can  only 
make  use  of  the  remnants.  Moreover,  as  before 
mentioned,  most  of  the  stock  has  been  destroyed  at 
the  expulsion  of  the  landowners.  According  to  of- 
ficial data  (The  Economic  Life,  March  4,  1919,  No. 
49)  the  number  of  working  hours  has  decreased  by 
80  per  cent ;  oxen  by  58  per  cent  and  milch  cows  by 
75  per  cent.    In  nine  provinces  of  Central  and  South.- 


50  SOYIETISM 

eastern  Russia  the  786  Soviet  estates  of  400,000 
acres  possess  only  1,821  horses,  namely,  an  average 
of  less  than  three  horses  per  estate  of  550  acres. 

The  difficulties  of  conducting  large  agricultural 
enterprises  are  very  great.  This  was  recognized  by 
the  Bolshevists  themselves  as  soon  as  they  passed 
from  writing  decrees  to  executing  them. 

"We  are  compelled  to  subdivide  large  estates  into 
small  holdings,  thereby  throwing  ourselves  back  for 
several  decades  and  dooming  the  population  of  Rus- 
sia to  famine  and  shortage.  Such  is  the  earliest 
prospect  of  our  land  organization. ' ' — (The  Truth,  t 
May  16,  1919.) 

Then  came  the  disorganization  of  industry,  through 
anarchic  so-called  workmen's  control,  and  the  paralysis 
of  transportation,  both  through  this  cause  and  through 
the  nation-wide  "civil  war"  which  was  the  beginning 
and  end  of  Bolshevist  political  policy. 
I  In  their  frantic  efforts  to  cure  all  these  evils  of  dis- 
organization by  their  sovereign  remedy,  violence,  the 
Soviets  issued  decrees  expropriating  all  "surplus" 
products  of  agriculture  for  the  use  of  the  Soviet  "Re- 
public"— everything  not  required  to  prevent  the  early 
starvation  of  the  peasants  being  regarded  as  surplus. 
This  policy  effectively  extended  the  civil  war  to  every 
village — which  Lenine's  decrees  had  already  declared 
was  one  of  the  chief  aims  of  his  policy.  He  had  hoped, 
however,  to  secure  the  support  of  the  "poor"  and  later 
of  the  "middle"  peasants.  His  methods,  on  the  con- 
trary, united  the  village  against  him,  as  he  bitterly 
complained  against  the  "middle"  peasants  (whom  we 
should  call  wretchedly  poor)  in  a  Moscow  wireless  of 
December  11th,  1919.  He  declares  that  their  view  that 
the  grain  is  their  own  is  a  crime  against  the  state 


SOVIETISM  AND  THE  BOLSHEVIKI         51 

and  that  the  civil  war  in  the  village  must  be  redoubled — 
by  lining  up  the  "workers"  against  these  "landowners 
and  capitalists/' 

At  the  end  of  June,  1918,  the  first  military  de- 
tachments went  to  the  villages.  In  the  paper  "Sie- 
vernaia  Oblast, "  July  4,  1918,  the  detailed  instruc- 
tions for"  the  requisitioning  detachments  were  pub- 
lished. When  the  detachment  arrived  in  the  village, 
it  was  to  call  together  a  meeting,  not  of  all  the  pea- 
sants, but  only  of  the  poor  and  those  who  shared 
the  views  of  the  Soviet  authorities.  From  those  who 
actually  met,  a  committee  was  to  be  formed  of  from 
five  to  seven  members.  Eventually,  under  a  threat 
of  being  shot,  the  population  was  to  give  up  all  their 
arms  to  that  committee.  The  hiding  of  arms  entailed 
the  strictest  punishment,  even  death.  After  the 
peasants  had  been  disarmed  they  were  to  be  ordered 
to  bring  their  surplus  grain  to  the  grain  receiving 
stations  within  three  days.  Any  one  who  had  de- 
stroyed or  hidden  the  grain  would  be  regarded  as  a 
traitor  and  shot. 

Moscow  alone  sent  out  30,000  men  for  this  bloody 
work  within  a  short  period  (Pravda,  July  4,  1919). 
Out  of  36,500  men  sent  out  from  June  to  September, 
1919,  7,309  were  killed  by  the  peasants  while  collecting 
the  grain  (Izvestia  of  the  Food  Commissariat,  Decem- 
ber, 1918). 

There  are  some  forty  provinces  in  Soviet  Russia.  Here 
is  an  account  of  what  occurred  in  one  of  them: 

"In  Kharkov  alone  there  appeared,  beside  the 
local  supply  organizations,  representatives  of  17  or- 
ganizations from  Great  Russia,  such  as  the  Military 
Food  Bureau,  The  Moscow  Food  Soviet,  various 
Moscow  and  Petrograd  cooperative  societies,^  eto. 
The  purchases  were  carried  on  unsystematically, 


52  SOVIETISM 

large  sums  of  money  were  squandered,  and  prices 
rose  enormously.  Here,  too,  the  Soviet  Government 
made  use  of  requisitioning  detachments:  49  armed 
detachments  of  25-30  men  each  were  sent  into  the 
Kharkov  province  alone,  but  the  peasants  met  them 
with  rifles  and  machine  guns.  This  entailed  the 
sending  of  punitive  expeditions  and  the  grain  thus 
procured  was  stained  with  the  blood  of  the  tiller  of 
the  soil." 

The  only  way  the  peasants  have  devised  to  protect 
themselves  adequately  against  armored  cars  and  machine 
guns  is  not  to  have  any  "surplus  grain."  Here  is  the 
latest  and  chief  cause  of  the  Russian  food  shortage, 
blame  for  which  is  placed  by  the  Soviets  and  their 
sympathizers  on  the  Entente  blockade. 

Lenine's  speeches  frequently  show  that  he  is  fully 
aware  that  the  economic  collapse  into  which  the  Soviets 
have  brought  Russia  spells  the  doom  of  Sovietism.  He 
shows  that  he  knows  this  is  not  due  to  the  blockade,  but 
to  the  inability  of  a  party  consisting  almost  wholly  of 
agitators,  propagandists  and  self-appointed  shepherds 
of  the  proletariat  to  furnish  any  administrative,  techni- 
cal or  constructive  talents.  Hence  he  has  confessed  these 
must  be  hired — which  is  easier  said  than  done.  Possibly 
half  of  this  kind  of  ability  in  Russia  he  has  killed,  the 
other  half,  naturally,  is  not  very  friendly.  But  the 
point  is  that  the  Bolsheviki  confess  they  have  practically 
no  training  or  industrial  ability  among  them. 

Lenine  complains  that  the  other  Bolsheviks  failed  to 
even  recognize  their  own  incapacity — holding  that 
phrases  of  "enthusiasm"  were  sufficient  to  run  the  in- 
dustry of  that  great  country.    He  says: 

"There  is  a  lack  of  appreciation  of  that  simple 
and  obvious  fact  that,  if  the  chief  misfortunes  of 


SOVIETISM  AND  THE  BOLSHEVIK!         53 

Russia  are  famine  and  unemployment,  these  mis-  \ 
fortunes  cannot  be  overcome  by  any  outbursts  of 
enthusiasm,  but  only  by  thorough  and  universal  or- 
ganization and  discipline,  in  order  to  increase  the 
production  of  bread  for  men  and  fuel  for  industry, 
to  transport  it  in  time  and  to  distribute  it  in  the 
right  way." 

"Thorough  and  universal  organization  and  disci- 
pline" cannot  be  had  by  pronouncing  these  words. 
America  and  other  advanced  peoples  have  achieved 
them  in  large  measure,  but  only  through  generations  of 
cooperative  effort  on  the  part  of  millions  of  people. 
Like  Czar  Peter  the  Great,  Lenine  would  create  a  new 
civilization  by  ukase — after  destroying  nearly  every- 
thing needed  to  maintain  Russia  even  on  the  level  on 
which  it  has  hitherto  existed. 

But  this  statement  of  Lenine 's  is  not  to  be  taken  too 
seriously.  All  reconstruction  has  been  made  to  wait, 
and  will  continue  to  be  made  to  wait,  on  the  needs  of 
the  Bolshevik  party  and  the  "proletarian"  civil  war. 
As  Prof.  Issaieff  has  pointed  out,  there  is  only  one  per- 
sistent and  consistent  Bolshevist  economic  policy  and 
there  can  be  no  other. 

"All  the  reforms,  including  the  agrarian,  in  spite 
of  all  their  seeming  ambiguity,  and  instability,  ex- 
hibit one  fundamental  trait — namely,  the  desire  of 
strengthening  and  maintaining  the  supremacy  of 
their  party." 

The  Bolsheviki  are  not  giving  their  chief  attention 
either  to  feeding  starving  Russia  or  to  reorganizing  its 
disappearing  industry  and  railroads.  They  are  giving 
their  chief  attention  to  the  Red  Army,  propaganda  and 
the  Reign  of  Terror.     Their  efforts  in  these  directions 


54  SOVIETISM 

are  on  a  vast  scale  and  permeate  every  corner  of  their 
territory.  Their  industrial  efforts  are  puny  by  com- 
parison. 

Nor  is  their  chosen  line  of  effort  forced  upon  them. 
The  kaiser  said  "the  sword  is  forced  into  my  hands." 
The  Bolshevists  had  never  preached  anything  but  prop- 
aganda, terror,  and  Red  Armies.  They  had  no  political 
or  economic  program  which  they  themselves  took  seri- 
ously. They  have  no  training,  ideals,  interest,  or  ideaa 
in  this  direction. 

Russia  Starved  by  the  Entente! — Bucharin,  head  of 
the  Moscow  propaganda  bureau,  says  in  a  captured  letter 
to  American  Communists  written  late  in  1919  (published 
by  the  New  York  Times) :  "We  ask  you  to  stress  the 
factor  of  our  economic  strangulation." 

"Economic  strangulation" — the  words,  like  all  the 
expressions  of  this  important  letter  of  instructions,  are 
deliberately  and  well  chosen.  Strangulation,  for  the 
food  and  transport  crisis  of  Soviet  Russia  will  be  little 
relieved  by  the  capture  from  Denikin  and  Kolchak  of 
the  wrecks  of  a  few  hundred  trains  or  the  remains  of 
the  coal  mines.  Exactly  similar  victories  last  winter 
and  spring  did  not  relieve  the  crisis  in  an  appreciable 
degree.  Nothing  can  help  but  a  large  scale  importation 
of  locomotives  and  modern  machinery,  and  even  then 
the  Bolshevists  count  upon  prolonging  their  rule  only 
until  revolutions  in  other  'countries  help  them  out. 

If  any  verification  of  this,  the  real,  economic  condition 
of  Soviet  Russia  is  needed  it  is  only  necessary  to  glance 
at  "Ambassador"  Martens'  publication,  "Soviet  Rus- 
sia," for  December  20th,  1920,  which,  .attempting  to 
make  an  optimistic  report,  gives  the  whole  situation  away 
and  shows  that  Sovietism  is  on  the  very  verge  of  com- 


SOVIETISM  AND  THE  BOLSHEVIK!         55 

plete  economic  collapse.  The  victories  of  the  Red 
Armies  and  the  strenuous  military  efforts  made  at  points 
thousands  of  miles  apart  are  largely  responsible — though 
the  Reign  of  Terror,  the  contradictory  and  Utopian 
industrial  decrees  and  the  expenditure  of  vast  sums  for 
"propaganda,"  to  use  a  mild  term  for  this  literature, 
have  also  played  their  part  in  the  wrecking  of  the  na- 
tion. Isaac  Don  Levine,  whose  reports  are  highly  ap- 
proved by  "Soviet  Russia,"  says  that  fully  half  the 
locomotives  are  used  for  military  purposes. 

"Economic  strangulation,"  says  Bucharin.  If  he  had 
meant  starvation  only,  he  would  have  said  so.  The 
trouble  lies  in  industrial  and  transport  paralysis,  not 
in  the  crops.  Russia's  crops  have  been  cut  down  by 
the  refusal  of  the  oppressed  peasantry  to  plant  grain 
to  be  taken  to  the  cities  by  Lenine's  military  detach- 
ments for  the  use  of  the  half-idle  workingmen  and  the 
armies.  But  still  we  read  in  this  report  that  there  is 
ample  provision  for  1920: 

1 '  The  months  of  July  and  August  will  be  the  most 
critical,  as  Soviet  Russia  will  have  to  live  during 
these  months  upon  last  year's  harvest.  The  minimum 
required  of  eight  to  ten  million  poods  is,  however, 
more  than  covered  by  the  quantity  of  corn  known 
to  exist  in  reserve,  but  energetic  agitation  in  the 
village  will  be  required." 

The  meaning  of  "energetic  agitation  in  the  village'' 
has  already  been  explained. 

Soviet  Finance; — The  value  of  the  ruble  has  steadily 
and  rapidly  fallen  so  that  no  comparisons  may  be  made 
of  earlier  and  later  national  expenditures  or  income  of 
the  Soviet  governmental  and  industrial  regime.    But 


56 


SOVIETISM 


the  proporti&n  of  expenditure  to  income  makes  a  profit- 
able study. 


1st  half 
1918 

2nd  half 
1918 

1st  half 
1919 

Expenses * 

17.6 
2.9 

29.1 

50.7 

(in  billions  of  rubles) 

Income J 

12.7 

20.4 

Proportion 

16  p.c, 

44  p.c. 

86  p.c. 

In  the  second  half  of  1918,  expenditures  were  a  little 
more  than  twice  income.  In  the  first  half  of  1919  they 
were  two  and  a  half  times  as  much.  The  deficits  more- 
over are  accumulating,  and  the  full  situation  can  be 
seen  only  by  adding  them  together.  (Official  report  of 
Commissar  of  Finance,  Krestinsky.) 

The  problem  is  far  moVe  serious  than  at  first  appeals, 
for  the  government  budget  includes  that  of  the  railways 
and  nearly  all  industry.  In  the  first  half  of  1919,  the 
government  expended  11  billion  rubles  on  industry  and 
received  only  5  billion  income.  This  covers  only  estab- 
lishments operated  and  does  not  take  into  account  the 
nation's  loss  from  the  complete  shut-down  or  partial 
operation  of  the  majority  of  establishments. 

The  Bolshevist  Labor  Policy. — The  most  powerful 
leader  of  the  Bolsheviki  after  Lenine  and  Trotzky,  one 
Zinoviev,  in  a  comprehensive,  long  article  ("Izvestia," 
'April  15,  1919,  No.  81)  asks: 

' '  Has  the  Soviet  Government,  has  our  party  done 
everything  that  can  be  done  for  the  direct  improve- 
ment of  the  daily  life  of  the  average  workingman 
and  his  family?  Alas!  We  hesitate  to  answer  this 
question  in  the  affirmative. 


SOVIETISM  AND  THE  BOLSHEVIKI         57 

"Let  us  look  the  truth  in  the  face.  "We  have  com- 
mitted quite  a  number  of  blunders  in  this  realm.' ' 

Zinoviev  is  not  the  only  leader  of  the  Bolsheviki  who 
has  admitted  the  total  failure  of  their  labor  policy. 
About  a  year  ago  in  a  whole  series  of  speeches,  Lenine 
warned  the  Soviets  that  the  failure  of  their  labor  policy 
was  so  complete  as  to  threaten  his  entire  dictatorship — ■ 
which  he  insists  upon  calling  the  dictatorship  of  the 
proletariat. 

Numerous  other,  writers  of  Bolshevik  newspaper  arti- 
cles admit  the  same  thing  and  give  full  details. 

The  failure  of  the  economic  and  labor  policy  of  Soviet- 
ism  is  closely  connected  with  their  policy  of  nationaliza- 
tion. Not  only  did  they  nationalize  such  industries  and 
services  as  are  claimed  by  progressives  in  many  coun- 
tries to  be  ripe  for  nationalization,  but  proceeded  to 
make  a  clean  sweep,  as  is  evidenced  in  the  following 
quotations  from  the  Bolshevik  press: 

"Now  almost  all  the  large  and  medium-sized  es- 
tablishments are  nationalized.' '  (See  No.  46  of 
"Economicheskaya  Zhizn" — "Economic  Life.,,) 

"A  year  ago  there  were  about  36  per  cent  of  na- 
tionalized establishments  throughout  Soviet  Russia. 
At  the  present  time  90  per  cent  of  industrial  es- 
tablishments are  nationalized."  (No.  49  of  "Eco- 
nomic Life,"  1919.) 

"This  process,  at  first  a  revolutionary  one,  and 
actively  carried  out  in  life  by  the  Bolsheviki,  now 
takes  its  course  by  its  own  momentum,  and  it  may 
be,  even  against  the  will  of  those  who  started  it. 
The  shortage  of  fuel  and  raw  materials,  the  low 
efficiency  of  the  workingmen,  the  disorganized  ex- 
change of  commodities  create  conditions  that  make 
,     enterprises  yield  only  losses  to  the  owners.    Hence, 


58  SOVIETISM 

these  owners  abandon  their  factories  and  establish- 
ments to  their  fate,  preferring  that  they  be  nation- 
alized."    (Professor  Issaieff.) 

"The  only  salvation  for  Russia's  industry  lies  in 
the  nationalization  of  large  enterprises  and  the  clos- 
ing of  small  and  medium-sized  ones."  (From  an 
article  by  the  Bolshevik,  Bazhenov,  No.  50,  "Eco- 
nomic Life,"  March,  1919.) 

Along  with  this  nationalization  went,  necessarily, 
radical  changes  in  labor  policy. 

The  result  was  the  closing  of  an  overwhelming  major- 
ity of  the  factories,  and  the  cutting  down  of  production 
in  those  remaining  in  operation  to  a  fourth  or  fifth  of 
the  normal. 

"The  number  of  industrial  establishments  in  the 
City  of  Moscow  had  shrunk  to  173  by  the  first  of 
March,  1919,  from  681  in  1917."  (No.  51,  "Eco- 
nomic Life."  Report  of  the  Council  of  National 
Economy  of  the  City  of  Moscow.) 

"In  the  government  of  Novgorod  162  large  es- 
tablishments have  ceased  to  operate  (three-fourths 
of  the  total  number)  for  lack  of  raw  materials." 
(No.  37,  "Severnaya  Kommuna.") 

The  Soviet  newspaper,  "Trud"  (No.  23,  April  28, 
1919),  an  organ  of  the  trades  unions,  telling  about  the 
closing  of  19  textile  mills,  attempts  thus  to  explain  the 
causes  of  the  crisis: 

"In  our  textile  crisis  a  prominent  part  is  played 
also  by  the  bad  utilization  of  that  which  we  do  have. 
Thus  the  efficiency  of  labor  has  dropped  to  almost 
nothing,  of  labor  discipline  there  is  not  even  a  trace 
left,  the  machinery,  on  account  of  careless  handling, 
has  deteriorated  and  its  productive  capacity  has 
been  lowered." 


SOVIETISM  AND  THE  BOLSHEVIKI         59 

' '  Such  are  the  facts !  They  show  graphically  that 
one  of  the  main  factors  at  the  bottom  of  the  lowered 
productivity  of  factories  and  mills  in  Soviet  Russia, 
is  the  decline  of  efficiency  on  the  part  of  the 
workers;  the  former  is  the  result  of  the  latter." 

A  year  ago  this  Spring  of  1920  a  new  policy  was  in- 
stituted and  the  most  hated  anti-labor  policies  of  re- 
actionary employers  were  introduced;  the  Taylor  sys- 
tem, piece  wages,  premiums,  bonuses,  etc.  In  order  to 
introduce  these  hated  methods  it  was  necessary  com- 
pletely to  abolish  any  interference  of  the  factory  or 
labor  u  Soviets* '  with  the  industry  and  also  to  com- 
pletely abolish  whatever  remained  of  the  labor  unions. 
Lenine  easily  explained  this  change  to  his  fanatic  and 
gullible  followers  by  the  hokus-pokus  of  a  few  words. 
He  said  a  dictatorship  was  a  dictatorship  and  of  course 
had  to  be  extended  into  the  factories.  Having  accepted 
the  dictatorship  principle,  this  argument  was,  of  course, 
perfectly  logical. 

As  early  as  the  spring  of  1918  a  decree  was  published 
by  which  the  entire  railway  administration  was  handed 
over  to  managers  endowed  with  a  dictator's  full  powers. 
Economic  dictatorship  was  gradually  introduced  and  is 
advocated  by  Lenine  as  a  fundamental  principle. 

"Every  large  industrial  and  technical  undertak- 
ing demands  the  most  complete  and  stern  unity  of 
will,  which  directs  the  simultaneous  labor  of  hun- 
dreds, thousands  and  tens  of  thousands  of  indi- 
viduals. Such  a  strict  unity  of  will  can  only  be 
realized  by  the  subordination  of  the  will  of  thous- 
ands to  the  will  of  one  individual.  Such  a  subor- 
dination may  sometimes  assume  the  acute  forms 
of  a  dictatorship."  ("Immediate  Tasks  before 
the  Soviet  Power,"  pp.  11,  13.) 


60  SOVIETISM 

All  this  mentioned  above  tshows  how  rapid  has  been 
the  transition  of  the  Bolsheviki  from  "the  revolution- 
ary ereative  work  of  the  masses"  to  dictatorship.  As 
to  the  masses,  they  are  allowed  to  exhibit  their  creative 
powers  at  meetings. 

"We  must  learn  to  unite  the  democratism  of  la- 
bor mass  meetings,  stormy  as  a  spring  flood,  over- 
flowing their  banks,  with  the  iron  discipline  of 
work  hours,  with  the  absolute  subordination  to  the 
will  of  one  individual — the  Socialist  director." 
("Izvestia,"  No.  48,  1919.) 

An  overwhelming  majority  of  Russian  labor  union- 
ists, including  most  skilled  and  semi-skilled  labor,  are  not 
and  were  not  Bolshevists;  for  labor  unions  were  dis- 
solved at  the  very  beginning  of  Bolshevist  rule  so  that 
their  resistance  to  the  new  despotism  counted  for  noth- 
ing. 

From  the  point  of  view  of  efficient  Prussianism  the 
new  industrial  system  is  working  better  than  the  old. 
But  it  has  by  no  means  brought  back  Russian  industry 
to  the  level  it  occupied  before  they  came  into  power. 
For  example,  in  the  same  Nevsky  works  referred  to, 
where  the  productivity  of  the  workingmen  had  fallen  to 
one-fifth,  it  has  been  raised  again  to  three  and  a  half 
times  its  low  point  so  that  it  is  now  about  70  per  cent,  of 
the  low  1916  level.     (No.  259,  ' '  Severnaya  Kommuna. ") 

So  "in  the  Tula  Munition  Works,  after  the  old  'pre- 
mium' system  of  wages  had  been  restored,  the  produc- 
tivity of  the  works  and  of  labor  rose  to  70  per  cent,  of 
what  it  was  in  1916."  (Report  of  the  Bolshevik,  Rykov, 
"Izvestia,"  No.  467.) 

After  two  years  of  "constructive  work,"  the  Bolshe- 


SOVIETISM  AND  THE  BOLSHEVIKI        61 

viki  have  reduced  Russian  industry  to  two-thirds  its 
efficiency  when  they  took  charge.  This  is  not  all  the 
evil  they  have  done,  for  they  lost  fully  a  year  and  a  half 
of  valuable  time  at  the  low  production  level  of  one-third 
to  one-fifth  of  normal — that  is  where  the  factories  were 
working,  which  is  only  in  a  small  proportion  of  the 
whole  number,  as  above  shown. 

The  Repression  of  the  Labor  Unions. — The  struggle 
going  on  within  the  ranks  of  labor  in  Soviet  Russia  will 
best  be  disclosed  by  the  following  excerpts  from  the  edi- 
torial which  appeared  in  the  "Severnaya  Kommuna" 
on  the  30th  day  of  March,  1919 : 

"At  the  present  moment  a  tremendous  struggle 
is  going  on  within  the  ranks  of  the  proletariat  be- 
tween two  diametrically  opposed  currents.  Part  of 
the  proletariat,  numerically  in  the  great  majority, 
still  tied  to  the  village,  both  in  a  material  as  well 
as  idealogical  respect,  is  in  an  economic  sense  in- 
clined to  Anarchism.  It  is  not  connected  with  pro- 
duction and  not  interested  in  its  development. 

"The  other  part  is  the  industrial,  highly  skilled 
mechanic,  who  fights  for  new  methods  of  production. 

1 '  By  the  equalization  of  pay,  and  by  the  introduc- 
tion of  majority  rule  in  the  management  of  the  fac- 
tories, supposed  to  be  a  policy  of  Democracy,  we 
are  only  sawing  off  the  limb  on  which  we  are  sitting, 
for  the  flower  of  our  proletariat,  the  most  efficient 
workers,  prefer  to  go  to  the  villages,  or  to  engage 
in  home  trades,  or  to  do  anything  else  but  remain 
within  those  demolished  and  dusty  fortresses  we 
call  factories.  Why,  this  means  in  its  truest  sense 
a  dictatorship  of  unskilled  laborers." 

"The  skilled  mechanics  of  Russia  in  their  major- 
ity never  did  belong,  nor  do  they  now  belong,  to 
the  Communist  (Bolshevist)  party.  They  have  re- 
mained in  the  ranks  of  the  Menshevist  wing  of  the 


62  SOVIETISM 

Social-Democratic  party  and  in  the  Party  of  So- 
cialist-Revolutionists." (Report  on  the  Conference 
of  Labor  Delegates  of  the  City  of  Petrograd.) 

As  a  result,  the  leaders  of  the  Soviet  government  in 
1919  began  to  realize  the  fallacy  of  their  policy,  and  a 
new  wage  scale  was  introduced  by  a  decree  of  the  Peo- 
ple's  Commissaries,  founded  on  the  principle  of  extra 
pay  for  skill.  The  higher  skilled  a  workingman  or  em- 
ployee— the  more  he  is  to  earn.  This  wage  scale  was 
introduced  on  the  1st  of  March,  1919  (No.  66,  "Sever- 
naya  Kommuna").  According  to  this  scale,  there  are 
to  be  twenty-seven  classes  of  workers.  The  lowest,  un- 
skilled class  of  laborers,  domestic,  and  so  forth,  receive 
600  roubles  per  month  (1st  class),  600  roubles  (2nd 
class),  etc. 

Higher  employees,  specialists,  are  put  in  the  last 
classes  (20  to  27),  and  receive  from  1,370  to  2,200  rou- 
bles a  month. 

The  differentiation  between  skilled  and  unskilled  la- 
bor is  therefore  approaching  once  more  the  normal. 
But  the  reader  must  not  be  deceived  by  the  large  num- 
ber of  roubles  mentioned.  The  value  of  a  Bolshevik 
rouble  is  only  a  few  American  cents. 

The  relation  of  Bolshevism  to  the  labor  unions  under- 
went a  change  last  Spring  at  the  same  time.  The  labor 
unions,  against  the  protest  of  all  leading  organizations, 
had  been  merged  with  the  state;  under  the  new  policy 
the  labor  unions  were  totally  abolished  by  the  state,  as 
we  see  from  the  following  evidences: 

1 '  Only  practical  utilitarian  considerations  prevent 
us  from  completely  merging  the.  trade  unions  with 
the  administrative  apparatus  of  the  State."     (Mos- 


SOVIETISM  AND  THE  BOLSHEVIKI        63 

oow   Conference   of   Shop    Committees  and   Trade 
Unions,  March,  1919,  No.  51,  ''Economic  Life.") 


This  stand,  supported  by  the  Bolsheviki  or  Com- 
munists and  continually  repudiated  by  the  Socialists 
(Socialist-Revolutionists  and  Mensheviki),  betrayed  its 
weak  spot  with  particular  clearness  in  the  case  of  the 
Russian  railroads. 

At  the  congress  of  the  railroad  men  (February,  1919) 
the  Bolshevik,  Platonov,  making  his  report,  "sharply 
and  categorically  opposed  the  merging  of  the  trade 
unions  with  the  State.  This  has  taken  place  on  the 
railroads,  following  the  first  railroadmen's  congress  in 
1918,  in  the  shape  of  the  anarcho-syndicalist  principle: 
'The  railroads  to  the  railroadmen.'  "  (No.  42,  "Eco- 
nomic Life.") 

And  the  Bolshevik,  Krasin,  one  of  the  most  prominent 
specialists  on  factory  systems,  points  out  that  "the 
labor  control  on  the  part  of  the  trade  unions  confined 
itself  the  whole  time  to  a  perfunctory  supervision  of  the 
activities  of  the  plants,  and  completely  ignored  the  gen- 
eral work  of  production.  A  scientific,  technical  control, 
the  only  kind  that  is  indispensable,  is  altogether  beyond 
the  capacities  of  the  trade  unions."  (No.  12,  "Economic 
Life,"  1919.) 

As  a  result,  this  congress  adopted  a  resolution  "to  re- 
place the  workingmen's  control  by  one  of  inspection — 
i.  e.,  by  the  engineers  of  the  Council  of  National  Econ- 
omy." 

"Thus  a  breach  has  also  occurred  in  the  cardinal 
point  of  their  labor  policy,"  says  Prof.  Issaiev,  "but  it 
occurs  at  a  time  when  the  entire  structure  of  Russia's 
industry  is  nearly  destroyed,  and  control,  be  it  of  Labor, 


64  SOVIETISM 

be  it  of  the  State,  has  no  object  left  over  which  it  can* 
be  exercised. 

"The  Bolsheviki  admit  the  'mistakes'  of  their  labor 
policy,  and  repudiate  its  methods,  but  only  after  misera- 
ble shreds  remain  of  Russia's  industry." 

' '  The  authorities  have  developed  a  graded  scheme 
of  punishment  for  striking.  The  men  were  first 
told  that  the  greatest  crime  of  a  worker  is  sabotage 
against  the  workers'  state.  Two  ways  were  open  to 
them — the  honor  system  in  the  name  of  altruism  or 
forced  employment  if  they  wished  to  live.  Con- 
tinued refusal  to  work  was  followed  by  degrada- 
tion in  scale  of  employment,  reduction  of  rations, 
withdrawal  of  rations,  execution  after  trial  for  in- 
citing strike  and  shooting  on  sight  if  engaged  in 
strike." — Alonzo  E.  Taylor,  in  The  Saturday  Eve- 
ning Post. 

Alonzo  E.  Taylor  has  given  us  this  paragraph  sum- 
marizing the  latest  Bolshevist  decrees  and  policies  taken 
from  their  own  publications. 

The  economic  failure  of  this  "dictatorship  of  the 
proletariat"  has  gone  so  far  as  to  halve  the  numbers 
and  force  of  the  proletariat  itself — according  to  one 
of  the  most  powerful  of  Bolshevist  leaders,  Bucharin, 
who  says : 

1 '  Our  position  is  such  that,  together  with  the  de- 
terioration of  the  material  production — machinery, 
railway  and  other  things — there  is  a  destruction  of 
the  fundamental  productive  force,  the  labor  clasa 
as  such.  Here  in  Russia,  as  in  Western  Europe  (t), 
the  labor  class  is  dissolving,  factories  are  closing  and 
the  labor  class  is  reabsorbed  into  the  villages." — 
"Izvestia"  of  the  Central  Executive  Committee, 
March  21,  1919. 


SOVIBTISM  AND  THE  BOLSHEVIKI         65 

Soviet  Russia  Establishes  Compulsory  Labor. — So- 
viet Russia's  Code  of  Labor  Laws  (published  in  the 
official  American  organ,  "Soviet  Russia,"  February  21, 
1920),  provides  for  compulsory  labor  for  the  entire  pop- 
ulation over  16  years  of  age.  Married  women  are  ex- 
empted only  for  eleven  weeks  at  the  time  of  a  confine- 
ment. The  most  significant  paragraphs  of  this  code  are 
the  following: 

Compulsory  Labor 

16.  The  assignment  of  wage  earners  to  work  shall  be 
carried  out  through  the  Departments  of  Labor  Distribu- 
tion. 

17.  A  wage  earner  may  be  summoned  to  work,  save 
by  the  Departments  of  Labor  Distribution,  only  when 
chosen  for  a  position  by  a  Soviet  institution  or  enter- 
prise. 

24.  An  unemployed  person  has  no  right  to  refuse  an 
offer  of  work  at  his  vocation,  provided  the  working  con- 
ditions conform  with  the  standards  fixed  by  the  respec- 
tive tariff  regulations,  or  in  the  absence  of  the  same  by 
the  trade  unions. 

29.  An  unemployed  person  who  is  offered  work  out< 
side  his  vocation  shall  be  obliged  to  accept  it,  on  the 
understanding,  if  he  so  wishes,  that  this  be  only  tem- 
porary,   until  he  receives  work  at  his  vocation. 

45.  In  case  of  urgent  public  work  the  District  De- 
partment of  Labor  may,  in  agreement  with  the  respec- 
tive professional  unions  and  with  the  approval  of  the 
People's  Commissariat  of  Labor,  order  the  transfer  of 
a  whole  group  of  wage  earners  from  the  organization 
where  they  are  employed  to  another  situated  m  the 


66  SOVIETISM 

same  or  in  a  different  locality,  provided  a  sufficient  num- 
ber of  volunteers  for  such  work  cannot  be  found. 

Compulsory  Wages 

7.  Labor  conditions  in  Government  (Soviet)  estab- 
lishments shall  be  regulated  by  tariff  rules  approved  by 
the  Central  Soviet  authorities  through  the  People's  Com- 
missariat of  Labor. 

65.  Excepting  the  remuneration  paid  for  overtime 
work  done  in  the  same  or  in  a  different  branch  of  labor, 
no  additional  remuneration  in  excess  of  the  standard 
fixed  for  a  given  group  and  category  shall  be  permitted, 
irrespective  of  the  pretext  and  form  under  which  it 
might  be  offered  and  whether  it  be  paid  in  only  one  or 
in  several  places  of  employment. 

67.  Persons  receiving  excessive  remuneration,  in  viola- 
tion of  Section  65,  shall  be  liable  to  criminal  prosecu- 
tion for  fraud,  and  the  remuneration  received  in  excess 
of  the  normal  (standard)  may  be  deducted  from  sub- 
sequent payments. 

Compulsory  Standard  of  Work 

117.  The  production  standards  of  output  adopted  by 
the  valuation  commission  must  be  approved  by  the 
proper  Department  of  Labor  jointly  with  the  Council  of 
National  Economy. 

120.  The  Supreme  Council  of  National  Economy  joint- 
ly with  the  People's  Commissariat  of  Labor  may  direct 
a  general  increase  or  decrease  of  the  standards  of  effi- 
ciency and  output  for  all  wage  earners  and  for  all 
enterprises,  establishments  and  institutions  of  a  given 
district. 


SOVIETISM  AND  THE  BOLSHEVIKI         67 

Militaristic  State  Socialism  the  Final  Outcome. — Be- 
fore the  Soviet  experiment,  with  its  kaleidoscopic  re- 
versals of  policy,  radical  Socialists  were  unanimous  in 
wholly  repudiating  militaristic  State  Socialism,  from 
that  of  ancient  Peru  to  that  of  modern  Prussia.  Theirs 
was  ' '  a  movement  of  emancipation,  not  of  slavery  to  the 
state. ' '  The  latest  move  of  Trotzky  completes  the  circle 
and  embraces  this  very  policy.  Already  compulsory  la- 
bor had  been  made  a  part  of  the  Soviet  code.  But 
now  comes  the  final — and  the  last  conceivable — step  to- 
wards State  slavery,  the  proposal  to  mobilize  the  entire 
population  under  military  discipline.  We  take  the  fol- 
lowing from  the  official  Soviet  organ  of  America  ("So- 
viet Russia,"  March  13,  1920) : 

"The  Third  All-Russian  Economic  Congress  was 
opened  on  January  23,  1920,  in  Moscow;  224  dele- 
gates were  present.  Trotzky  spoke  on  mobilization, 
and  said  that  the  mobilization  of  labor  was  not  an 
infringement  on  personal  liberty.  Free  labor  in  a 
bourgeois  state  had  invariably  led  to  the  exploita- 
tion of  the  workers.  The  constitution  of  the  Soviets 
anticipates  the  mobilization  of  the  workers.  Hence- 
forth the  entire  military  administration  must  be 
adapted  to  the  economic  conditions.  The  entire  pop- 
ulation of  a  region  will  become  an  association  of 
labor,  and  at  the  same  time  a  unit  of  the  Bed  Army." 

Already  several  army  corps,  according  to  this  official 
account,  have  been  turned  into  industrial  serfs.  The 
leading  Bolshevist  organ  approved  the  policy,  as  did  the 
Economic  Conference,  and  it  is  in  process  of  extensive 
execution. 

The  Soviets  show  their  consciousness  that  militariza- 
tion is  a  complete  reversal  of  all  Socialism,  Communism, 


68  SOVIETISM 

and  democracy  by  consistently  avoiding  that  word  and 
using,  instead,  the  word  mobilization  for  this  new  move ! 
The  whole  Ked  Army  movement,  which  absorbed  the 
chief  efforts  and  was  the  principal  achievement  of  So- 
vietism  in  1919,  is  to  be  turned  in  1920  into  an  engine 
of  compulsory  labor,  backed  by  fanatical  military  disci- 
pline.   At  the  Economic  Congress,  Trotzky  said : 

"We  shall  succeed  if  skilled  and  trained  workers 
take  part  in  productive  labor.  Trade  unions  must 
register  skilled  workmen  in  the  villages.  Only  in 
those  localities  where  trade  union  methods  are  in- 
adequate other  methods  must  be  introduced,  in  par- 
ticular that  of  compulsion,  because  labor  conscrip- 
tion gives  the  State  the  right  to  tell  the  skilled  work- 
man who  is  employed  on  some  unimportant  work  in 
his  village,  'You  are  obliged  to  leave  your  present 
employment  and  go  to  Sormovo  or  Kolomna  because 
there  your  work  is  required/ 

"Labor  conscription  means  that  the  skilled  work- 
men who  leave  the  army  must  take  their  work  books 
and  proceed  to  places  where  they  are  required,  where 
their  presence  is  necessary  to  the  economic  system 
of  the  country.  "We  must  feed  these  workmen  and 
guarantee  them  the  minimum  food  ration." 

Thus  compulsory  labor  replaces  labor  unionism.  But 
the  most  sinister  part  of  the  program  is  the  use  of  the 
fanatical  Red  Army  for  this  object.  Referring  to  the 
work  of  the  Red  Army,  Trotzky  said: 

"They  (the  soldiers)  have  learned  under  the  very 
hardest  conditions  to  lead  hundreds  of  thousands  of 
organized  masses  and  have  led  peasants  into  battle. 
They  will  be  trained  officers.  There  is  still  one  way 
open  to  the  reorganization  of  national  economy — the 


SOVIETISM  AND  THE  BOLSHEVIK!        69 

way  of  uniting  the  army  and  labor  and  changing 
the  military  detachments  of  the  army  into  detach- 
ments of  a  labor  army. 

"Many  in  the  army  have  already  accomplished 
their  military  task,  but  they  cannot  be  demobilized 
as  yet.  Now  that  they  have  been  released  from  their 
military  duties,  they  must  fight  against  economic 
ruin  and  against  hunger,  they  must  work  to  obtain 
fuel,  peat  and  other  heat  producing  products,  they 
must  take  part  in  building,  in  clearing  the  lines  of 
snow,  in  repairing  roads,  building  sheds,  grinding 
flour,  etc. 

"We  have  already  organized  several  of  these  ar- 
mies and  their  tasks  have  been  allotted  to  them.  One 
army  must  obtain  foodstuffs  for  the  workmen  of  the 
districts  in  which  it  was  formerly  stationed  and  it 
also  will  cut  wood,  cart  it  to  the  railways  and  re- 
pair engines.  Another  army  will  help  in  the  laying 
down  of  railway  lines  for  the  transport  of  crude  oil. 
A  third  labor  army  will  be  used  for  repairing  agri- 
cultural implements  and  machines,  and  in  the  spring 
will  take  part  in  the  working  of  the  land." 

A  proclamation  of  the  Soviet  government  issued  in 
February  in  protest  against  the  "holidays"  (strikes?) 
of  the  workers  in  the  Northern  railway  shops  indicates 
that  this  policy  is  already  decided  upon — and  in  a  thor- 
oughly military  spirit.  The  London  Times  quotes  the 
proclamation  verbatim.  Here  are  its  most  significant 
phrases : 

"Martial  law  must  be  introduced  into  the  railway 
shops  and  the  guilty  must  be  subjected  to  all  its 
rigors. 

"We  cannot  put  an  end  to  the  ruinous  conditions 
of  our  situation,  combat  hunger,  and  save  the  Soviet 
Republic  except  by  carrying  on  a  furious  struggle 
on  the  labor  front." 


70  SOVIETISM 

Compulsion  for  Industrial  Managers. — As  the  Red 
Army  was  provided  with  officers  by  compulsion  and  the 
taking  of  families  as  hostages,  why  cannot  similar  meth- 
ods be  applied  to  the  technical  and  managerial  brains 
indispensable  for  industry?  One  of  Lenine's  chief  eco- 
nomic counsellors,  an  American  engineer,  named  Royal 
Kelly,  has  advised  Lenine  to  this  effect.  According  to 
Lincoln  Eyre,  who  read  his  report,  Kelly  says: 

' '  There  must  be  in  your  industries  a  Trotzky  who 
will  be  given  the  powers  of  a  Foch  and  the  Govern- 
ment's  unqualified  support.  There  must  be  an  in- 
dustrial army  rationed,  billeted,  clothed  and  pun- 
ished, when  necessary,  along  military  lines.  Into 
this  army  there  must  be  drawn  by  inducements, 
similar  to  those  by  which  the  Czarist  officers  were 
drawn  i/nto  the  Bed  Army,  trained  executives  and 
specialists.  It  is  a  painful  sight  to  see  the  best 
qualified  industrial  minds  in  Russia  wasted." 

Special   Revolutionary   Tribunals   for   Labor. — The 

Soviet  reign  of  terror  was  maintained  (as  long  as  any 
serious  opposition  continued)  chiefly  by  special  revolu- 
tionary tribunals.  Trotzky  now  proposes  to  utilize  this 
efficient  engine  of  compulsion,  as  well  as  the  ferocious 
discipline  of  the  Red  Army,  in  order  to  compel  the  work- 
ingmen  to  serve  the  Bolshevist  dictatorship  more  effi- 
ciently in  industry.  Trotzky  was  asked  by  Lenine  to 
prepare  a  memorandum  on  this  matter,  seen  by  Lincoln 
Eyre,  who  reports  that  Trotzky  in  this  document  ad- 
vocates "the  organization  of  special  revolutionary  labor 
tribunals  for  the  enforcement  of  that  rigid  discipline 
without  which, ' '  he  alleged, ' '  there  could  be  no  economic 
salvation. ' ' 
The  Secret  of  Red  Army  Success. — The  victories  of 


SOVIETISM  AND  THE  BOLSHEVIKI         71 

the  Red  Armies  inside  of  Russia,  military  critics  agree, 
were  due  mainly  to  vastly  superior  numbers.  These  sol- 
diers were  obtained  by  conscription.  How  were  they 
held?  This  is  a  matter  of  opinion,  but  the  opinion  of  the 
friendly  Lincoln  Eyre  (in  The  New  York  World)  ia 
certainly  worthy  of  consideration,  as  he  was  given  every 
opportunity  by  Lenine.     Eyre  says: 

"But  obviously  the  bulk  of  the  3,000,000  Red 
soldiers  is  composed  of  peasants  who  serve  for  the 
reason  that  somebody  in  authority  tells  them  there 
is  no  othsf  way  of  saving:  their  lamd  from  restoration 
to  the  old  proprietors.  Non-communists  in  the  cities 
consent  to  don  uniforms,  first,  because  it  is  danger- 
ous to  resist,  and,  secondly,  because  they  and  their 
families  get  more  food  by  so  doing. " 

The  truthfulness  of  the  Soviet  propaganda  is  dealt 
with  elsewhere  in  the  present  volume.  Its  vast  extent 
is  a  matter  of  Soviet  pride.  But  it  is  peculiarly  effective 
and  important  in  the  Red  Army.  As  Eyre  says,  "The 
Red  Army's  publications  are  numberless,  for  every  week 
a  fresh  newspaper  appears.  Twenty-five  newspapers  are 
published  under  the  jurisdiction  of  the  political  depart- 
ment, with  a  circulation  of  800,000."     (See  below.) 

The  unread,  and  for  the  most  part  uneducated,  sol- 
diery no  doubt  believe  everything,  or  nearly  every- 
thing, they  are  told — especially  about  foreign  countries. 
The  Soviets,  moreover,  are  masters  of  propaganda  for 
ignorant  readers. 

Sovietism  and  Bolshevism. — "The  Bolshevists 
follow  the  most  despotic  policy.  They  disperse  one 
after  another  local  Soviets  suspected  of  hostility 
to  the  government.  The  members  of  the  Soviets  are 
no  longer  parliamentary  representatives,  but  func- 


72  SOVIETISM 

tionaries.  Each  one  is,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  ap- 
pointed to  an  administrative  committee,  in  which  he 
has  a  fixed  role:  to  obey  the  direction  of  the  Cen- 
tral Executive  Committee,  represented  in  the  prov- 
inces by  commissars  provided  with  the  most  absolute 
powers. ' ' 

This  quotation  from  a  report  by  the  pro-Bolshevist 
Jacques  Sadoul  to  the  French  Government  bears  the 
date  of  April  15,  1918.  It  was,  therefore,  written  before 
the  Bolsheviki  could  defend  their  despotism  with  the 
plea  of  military  necessity.  They  were  at  peace  with  all 
the  world. 

The  Soviets  are  the  political  expression  of  Bolshevism, 
in  fact  its  sole  real  expression  of  any  kind.  By  institut- 
ing so-called  Soviet  government,  molding  the  Soviets  to 
their  purposes  from  day  to  day,  controlling  them,  and 
making  them  mean  anything  they  want,  the  Bolshevist 
sect  rules  Russia — and  this  is  the  beginning  and  end  of 
their  doctrine  and  their  social  system. 

Sovietism  and  Bolshevism  are  practically  identical. 
The  closing  sentences  of  the  Bolshevists'  wireless  New 
Year's  message  for  1920  were:  "In  1919  was  born  the 
great  communist  international.  In  1920  will  be  born 
the  great  International  Soviet  Republic." 

The  Bolshevist  May-day  manifesto  for  1919  declared : 

"In  1920  we  shall  attain  a  victorious  end  of  civil 
war.  Siberia,  the  Ukraine,  the  Don  region  and  the 
Caucasus  desire  Soviets.  There  will  also  be  Soviets 
at  Berlin,  Washington,  Paris,  and  London.  Soviet 
(Mthority  will  be  supreme  throughout  the  world." 

The  entire  aim  of  Bolshevism  is  Sovietism — to  estab- 
lish Soviets. 


SOVIETISM  AND  THE  BOLSHEVIKI         73 

The  first  international  communist  congress  in  1919 
declared : 

"The  workmen  of  all  countries  have  understood 
that  the  decisive  moment  has  come.  'Soviets,'  by 
this  you  will  conquer."  As  a  constructive  measure 
after  the  establishment  of  the  "dictatorship  of  the 
proletariat,"  per  the  communist  sects,  we  have  rec- 
ommended— a  Red  Army  on  the  Russian  model. 

Sovietism,  the  political  aspect  of  Bolshevism,  is  the 
perfect  tool  and  the  chief  expression  of  "the  dictator- 
ship of  the  proletariat." 

Sovietism  may  have  several  shades  of  meaning,  each 
of  them  legitimate,  but  a  word  means  in  politics  and 
practical  life  what  it  means  to  most  people.  In  Russia 
and  all  over  the  world,  Sovietism  is  usually  employed  as 
a  synonym  for  Bolshevism  or  Leninism.  But  what  does 
Sovietism  mean  among  the  educated  and  the  well-in- 
formed, and  among  the  practical  leaders  of  the  world? 
What  will  it  continue  to  mean,  in  spite  of  all  efforts  to 
give  it  an  ideal  and  democratic  connotation  ?  "Why,  noth- 
ing less  than  this:  the  political  system  of  Bolshevism — 
communism  being  its  economic  system. 

Sovietism  means  the  governmental  system  of  the  Bol- 
shevists. Scattered  and  relatively  unimportant  non-gov- 
ernmental committees,  local  governing  groups,  etc.,  of 
a  thousand  varieties  existed  in  Russia  from  the  day 
Czarism  was  overthrown.  There  was  also  rapidly  organ- 
ized a  national  system  of  labor  " Soviets"  in  all  the  in- 
dustrial centers.  This  system  did  not  claim  to  take  the 
place  of  the  government  or  to  represent  the  entire  na- 
tion. It  was  nothing  more  nor  less  than  a  federation 
of  the  central  labor  bodies  of  the  towns,  which  were 
composed    of    the    delegates    from    factories,    instead 


74  SOVIETISM 

of  the  delegates  from  trades  as  in  other  countries.  The 
name  soviet  thus  gathered  so  much  prestige  that  it  was 
also  loosely  applied  by  the  ignorant  population  to  all  the 
local  bodies  and  governing  committees  instead  of  longer 
and  more  cumbersome  titles. 

But  none  of  this  is  what  is  now  meant  by  Sovietism. 
As  soon  as  the  Bolsheviki  saw  they  might  capture  the 
whole  labor  soviet  system,  they  began  to  demand  that  the 
labor  Soviets  (and  no  others)  should  be  given  a  monopoly 
of  governmental  power.  At  the  same  time,  they  both  nar- 
rowed and  enlarged  the  system.  They  narrowed  it  by 
superintending  all  factory  elections  by  Red  Guards  and 
spies  and  throwing  leading  labor  opponents  in  prisons, 
by  quashing  all  anti-Bolshevist  factory  or  municipal 
soviet  elections  that  were  too  unfavorable,  and  by  pass- 
ing "constitutions"  which  not  only  disfranchised  the 
middle  classes,  but  gave  each  Russian  or  foreign  Red 
Guard  several  votes.  They  enlarged  the  system  by  giv- 
ing the  peasants  (ninety  per  cent,  of  the  population)  a 
representation  as  a  minority  in  the  national  and  each 
provincial  soviet.  Further,  all  election  laws  and  elections 
that  proved  embarrassing,  in  spite  of  all  these  precau- 
tions, were  laid  aside  by  ukases  of  Lenine,  always  with 
the  phrase,  ' '  proletarian  necessity. ' ' 

Alonzo  E.  Taylor  and  other  defenders  of  the  Soviets 
(as  distinct  from  Bolshevism!)  admit  that  this  is  "not 
a  democracy  or  a  representative  form  of  government." 
As  the  peasant  elections,  being  indirect  by  two  degrees, 
are  even  more  subject  to  manipulation  than  the  elec- 
tions in  the  factories,  this  is  a  rather  obvious  truth. 

This  is  the  history  of  sovietism  as  a  form  of  govern- 
ment. From  the  first,  this  governmental  sovietism  has 
been  nothing  whatever  but  the  political  expression  of 


SOVIETISM  AND  THE  BOLSHEVIKI        75 

Bolshevism.  Yet  the  pro-Sovietists  would  have  us  be- 
lieve the  preposterous  proposition  that  the  peasants  are 
attached  to  the  soviet  form  of  government,  that  it  origin- 
ated with  the  historic  local  village  government  (the 
mir),  that  Kerensky  might  have  saved  Russia  by  adopt- 
ing it,  and  that  communism  is  one  thing  and  sovietism 
another. 

On  the  contrary,  this  village  democracy  (the  mir) 
leads  to  and  demands  nothing  but  national  democracy — 
which  means  a  constitutional  assembly  with  a  huge 
peasant  majority.  (There  could  be  no  objection  to 
calling  this  a  Soviet — or  anything  else.) 

Taylor,  like  other  pro-Sovietists,  presents  us  a  Soviet 
system  as  a  fact,  though  he  elsewhere  confesses  it  is 
purely  imaginary.  For  he  admits  the  usurpation  and 
dictatorship  of  Lenine  and  his  Bolshevist  minority  as 
having  prevailed  throughout  Soviet  Russia  from  the 
very  beginning  of  the  Soviet  government.  This  imagi- 
nary Soviet  system  does  not  exist  even  on  paper — in 
Russia.  For  the  Bolshevik  paper  constitution  is  a  total- 
ly different  thing,  aiming  on  every  page  to  destroy  de- 
mocracy and  provide  a  rock-ribbed  system  of  unequal 
representation. 

Here  is  Taylor's  Soviet  system: 

"AH  men  and  women  in  a  township  vote  to  select 
a  soviet  (!)  At  the  meeting  of  the  township  soviet  a 
certain  number  of  members,  according  to  popula- 
tion, are  elected  as  delegates  to  the  county  soviet.  A 
council  is  elected  to  run  the  township.  The  county 
soviet,  consisting  of  the  representatives  of  the  town- 
ship Soviets,  meets  and  elects  representatives  to  the 
state  soviet  and  also  selects  a  council  for  administra- 
tion of  the  affairs  of  the  county.  Cities  above  a  cer- 
tain size  have  an  urban  soviet,  like  a  commission 


76  SOVIETISM 

form  of  municipal  government.  The  representatives 
of  the  county  Soviets  form  the  state  soviet,  this  elects 
representatives  to  the  national  soviet  and  names  a 
council  to  conduct  the  affairs  of  the  state.  The  na- 
tional soviet  selects  a  cabinet  or  commissary  to  ad- 
minister the  affairs  of  the  nation,  under  direct  legis- 
lation of  the  national  soviet. 

"Under  such  a  scheme  the  direct  expansion  of 
the  primitive  soviet  would  represent  a  form  of  pure 
democracy,  without  conflict  between  legislative  and 
executive.  Such  a  scheme  of  democratic  government 
gets  rid  of  primaries,  general  elections,  partisan  or- 
ganizations and  representation  by  professional  poli- 
ticians. ' ' 

Although  such  a  system  never  existed  in  Russia,  even 
on  paper,  Taylor  represents  the  real  Sovietism  as  a  sort 
of  accidental  corruption  of  this  ideal.  For  the  practical 
failure  of  the  Soviets  he  apologizes  by  saying  that  ' '  any 
political  system  is  capable  of  corruption. ' '  So  also  is 
any  political  system  capable  of  defense — provided  it  is 
first  idealized,  and  the  reality  then  regarded  as  a  cor- 
ruption.    Taylor  says: 

"With  the  modifications  introduced  by  Lenine 
and  Trotzky  the  system  was  raised  to  the  nth  power 
as  a  political  machine.  Lenine  and  Trotzky  are  not 
the  expressions  of  the  opinions  of  the  Russian  peo- 
ple; they  are  the  manipulators  of  the  Russian  peo- 
ple. "Within  a  year  they  developed  a  political  ma- 
chine that  for  autocracy  and  arbitrariness  exceeds 
anything  ever  dreamed  of  by  a  ward  heeler,  and  one 
that  lends  itself  to  infinite  variety  of  corruption." 

These  were  not  "modifications  introduced  by  Lenine 
and  Trotzky."  They  were  the  very  essence,  the  whole 
reality,  the  ratison  d'etre  of  Sovietism.     It  was  called 


SOVIETISM  AND  THE  BOLSHEVIKI        77 

into  being  for  these  purposes,  and  continues  to  exist 
solely  because  it  continues  to  function,  as  it  always  has, 
to  uphold  the  Bolshevik  "dictatorship  of  the  proleta- 
riat," and  to  prevent  democratic  government. 
Taylor  says: 

1 '  The  peasant  was  for  the  time  being  glad  to  ac- 
cept the  idea  of  communism  of  the  land  so  long  as 
the  government  was  a  soviet  and  the  peasant  con- 
trolled the  soviet. 

1 '  The  urban  worker  was  willing  to  accept  a  soviet 
government,  in  which  he  would  have  only  a  numeri- 
cally minor  representation,  so  long  as  the  factories, 
mines  and  other  industries  were  communized." 

This  is  as  far  as  you  can  get  from  the  truth.  No 
soviet  paper  constitution,  no  soviet  executive,  ever  even 
promised  peasant  control;  no  urban  worker  was  ever 
told  by  either  authority  that  he  was  to  have  a  numeri- 
cally minor  representation.  On  the  contrary,  it  is  a 
"proletarian"  dictatorship,  and  it  was  only  the  "poorer 
peasants"  (the  mere  poor  being  excluded)  who  were 
promised  a  minority  representation,  but  only — as  Lenine 
expressly  and  repeatedly  states — if  they  accept  the  lead- 
ership of  the  proletariat.     (See  below.) 

As  to  national  communism,  it  is  not  and  cannot  be  a 
main  issue  in  the  village.  The  peasant  takes  no  direct 
interest  in  the  administration  of  city  industries,  except 
to  demand  cheap  supplies  and  a  good  market.  He  does 
demand  an  equal  voice  with  the  city  wage-earner,  which 
would  give  him  a  majority  in  the  national  government, 
including  the  railways  and  the  tax  system — which  are 
the  things  that  matter  to  him. 

Nor  is  there  any  more  relation  between  the  village 
commune  (or  mir)   and  city  communism  than  there  is 


78  SOVIETISM 

between  the  mir  and  the  proletarian  Soviets.  Provided 
the  peasants  have  all  the  land,  many  might  continue 
to  prefer  the  communal  system  to  which  they  are  accus- 
tomed. It  was  continued  under  Czarism,  it  continues 
under  Bolshevism,  and  it  may  or  may  not  continue  under 
democracy.  But  it  has  no  relation  to  national  commun- 
ism, except  that  we  non-Russians  use  the  same  word  for 
two  different  things.  The  village  communes  allow  pri- 
vate property  to  exist  in  the  same  village  without  any 
jealousy.  They  are  not  propagandists,  and  many  mem- 
bers of  village  mirs  advocate  private  property  in  the 
village,  though  it  is  always  a  minor  consideration.  The 
question  has  nothing  whatever  to  do  with  their  attitude 
to  Bolshevism  or  Sovietism. 

Educational  Eeform? — The  most  amazing  Soviet 
propaganda  has  been  circulated — often  by  deceived 
dupes — about  Bolshevik  educational  reform,  "10,000 
new  schools"  and  "children's  palaces" — in  the  midst  of 
terrorism,  industrial  collapse,  and  starvation!  Lenine 
set  these  tales  to  rest  (though  they  circulate  as  much 
as  ever)  by  his  remarks  at  the  Soviet  education  congress 
last  May  (quoted  by  the  sympathetic  correspondent, 
Isaac  Don  Levine) : 

"In  the  field  of  the  education  of  the  illiterate  we 
have  done  little,"  said  Lenine.  Destruction,  as  al- 
ways, had  gone  along  beautifully,  but  construction 
had  not  even  begun,  as  we  see  in  Lenine 's  further 
remarks : 

"Having  destroyed  the  old  institutions  we  wmst 
begin  to  solve  the  first  problem  of  the  proletarian 
revolution — i.  e.,  the  organization  of  tens,  or  hun- 
dreds, of  millions  of  people.  After  a  year  and  a 
half  of  experience  we  must  finally  stand  on  the  right 
road  which  would  conquer  that  ignorance  and  dark- 


SOVIETISM  AND  THE  BOLSHEVIKI        79 

ness  and  savagery  with  which  we  constantly  come 
into  conflict." 

We  can  judge  whether  Lenine's  attacks  on  all  previ- 
ous civilization,  and  his  appeal  for  class  hatred  and  mass 
terrorism  would  decrease  or  augment  this  "darkness 
and  savagery." 

Attempt  to  Sovietize  the  Schools. — The  attempt  to 
sovietize  the  organization  of  school  control  has  so  out- 
raged all  human  experience  that  a  mere  statement  of  the 
plan  finally  adopted  is  sufficient.  We  quote  from  Lin- 
coln Eyre's  interview  with  Lunacharsky  (New  York 
World,  March  27th,  1920)  : 

1 '  Each  school  is  managed  not  by  the  teacher  alone 
but  by  a  committee  composed  of  teachers,  represen- 
tatives of  the  children's  parents  and  delegates  of 
the  pupils,  themselves  over  the  age  of  twelve,  to 
which  is  added  an  envoy  of  the  local  branch  of  the 
Commissariat  of  Public  Instruction." 

We  leave  this  brilliant  plan  for  the  consideration  of 
any  human  being  who  has  ever  had  anything  to  do  with 
the  administration  of  schools.  Let  it  be  remembered 
in  drawing  our  conclusions  that — according  to  the  Bol- 
shevik ukase  against  illiteracy — a  very  large  part,  if 
not  the  majority,  of  the  parents  given  such  an  important 
control  over  the  schools  are  illiterate,  while  the  teachers, 
according  to  Lunacharsky,  are  chosen  primarily  because 
they  are  sufficiently  fanatical  communists ! 

Bolshevism  Against  Freedom  of  Conscience  in  Edu- 
cation.— Bucharin,  editor  of  the  official  Bolshevist  news- 
paper Pravda,  published,  in  Moscow  in  1918,  a  book 
called  The  A  B  C  of  Bolshevism  (said  to  be  used  in 
the  school  of  propaganda  of  the  Soviet  government).  In 
this  volume  we  have  a  striking  revelation  of  the  fact  that 


80  SOVIETISM 

the  Soviets  have  set  up  a  new  type  of  compulsory  sec- 
tarian education;  they  propose  to  fill  the  children  with 
their  fanatical  doctrines  from  infancy.  Of  course  they 
present  this  in  the  guise  of  freeing  the  children  from 
other  doctrines,  but  as  they  propose  to  combat  not  only 
the  religious  but  the  political  beliefs  of  parents,  it  is 
clear  that  their  aim  is  positive  and  not  merely  negative. 
Bucharin's  statement,  quoted  by  Alexander  Severoff  in 
the  Esthonian  Review  (March,  1920),  is  in  a  line  with 
other  Bolshevist  pronouncements.    Says  Bucharin: 

"Freedom  of  conscience  in  parents  has  merely 
been  used  by  them  to  poison  the  minds  of  their 
children  in  the  same  way  as  they  themselves  were 
poisoned  in  old  days  by  the  Church.  .  .  .  The  sal- 
vation of  the  young  mind  and  the  freeing  it  from 
noxious  reactionary  beliefs  of  their  parents  is  one 
of  the  highest  aims  of  the  proletarian  government." 

Education  and  Propaganda  Merged. — The  whole 
"educational"  policy  of  the  Bolshevists  can  be  grasped 
only  if  we  understand  that  they  frankly  regard  all  their 
educational  and  cultural  activities  as  part  of  their  propa- 
ganda, since  all  of  these  activities  are  acknowledged 
to  be  permeated  with  fanatical  communist  teaching.  The 
fanatic  character  of  this  communist  teaching  appears 
throughout  the  present  volume.  It  consists  in  two  parts : 
(1)  a  violent  denunciation  of  all  previous  and  existing 
cultures  and  of  all  the  institutions  built  up  by  humanity 
in  ten  thousand  years;  and  (2)  amazing  pictures  of  the 
things  the  Bolshevists  are  going  to  do  for  the  people. 
The  very  fact  that  such  propaganda  must  be  brought  to 
the  people  indicates  its  wholly  undemocratic  origin. 

The  official  organ  of  the  Soviet  government  in  Amer- 
ica, "Soviet  Russia,"  publishes   (March  20,   1920)   a 


SOVIETISM  AND  THE  BOLSHEYIKI       81 

Soviet  government  radiogram  summarizing  the  Bolshe- 
vists '  work  for  education  and  culture  in  schools,  theaters, 
the  Red  Army,  etc.  As  in  all  Bolshevist  documents  no 
sharp  distinction  is  made  between  what  has  already  been 
achieved,  and  what  is  promised,  though  remaining  en- 
tirely upon  paper. 

This  wireless  message  gives  an  excellent  illustration 
of  the  total  confusion  of  education  and  propaganda  in 
the  Bolshevist  mind.  Speaking  of  the  "cultural"  work 
going  on  in  the  Red  Army  the  radiogram  says: 

"The  cultural  and  educational  work  does  not 
cease,  even  on  the  most  active  fronts,  in  a  military 
sense,  and  is  carried  on  almost  under  artillery  fire. 

"In  the  region  of  Samara  there  have  been  organ- 
ized in  the  railway  stations  political  bureaus  which 
furnish  literature  to  troops  stopping  there  and  or- 
ganize meetings,  lectures  and  talks.  Almost  all  the 
army  units  have  communist  propaganda  sections. 
This  revolutionary  propaganda  extends  to  the 
enemy  camp,  and  there  often  achieves  better  results 
than  artillery  fire;  the  White  Guards  come  over  in 
whole  regiments  to  the  side  of  the  Soviet  Power. 

"The  cultural  and  educational  organizations  of 
the  Red  soldiers  are  the  long-range  guns  which  will 
silence  the  most  perfect  batteries  bought  by  inter- 
national capital." 

This  is  typical.  All  the  so-called  educational  work 
of  the  Soviets  exists  primarily,  if  not  exclusively,  for 
the  purpose  of  the  propaganda  of  communist  fiction. 
It  may  be  imagined  what  is  left  of  genuine  education  as 
it  is  understood  by  experienced,  civilized,  and  democratic 
communities. 

In  the  same  radiogram  we  get  a  glimpse  of  how  the 
propaganda  work  goes  on  and  the  true  significance  of 


82  SOVIETISM 

the  Bolshevist  ukase  against  illiteracy  (see  below).  It 
is  obvious  that  the  Soviets  cannot  fill  the  minds  of  the 
illiterate  with  their  doctrines  nearly  so  readily  as  they 
can  the  minds  of  those  who  can  read  their  journals  and 
pamphlets.  Thus  we  have  the  following  touching  pic- 
ture of  the  campaign  against  illiteracy  as  it  is  being  car- 
ried out  in  a  certain  town :  ' '  All  of  the  mobilized  must 
read  journals  and  pamphlets  to  the  illiterate,  and  ex- 
plain to  them  the  unfamiliar  words. ' '  Beyond  question 
these  are  Bolshevist  propaganda  publications.  The 
Soviet  government  is  proud  of  this  work  and  does  not 
seem  to  realize  that  it  has  here  given  to  mankind  a  key 
to  its  educational  policy. 

In  the  same  radiogram  we  have  an  account  of  the 
number  of  volumes  in  the  "Palace  of  the  Red  Army  at 
Kazan."  Out  of  8,514  books,  including  fiction,  there 
were  2,360  books  of  a  communist  nature.  Against  this 
were  less  than  2,000  non-fiction  works  which  were  not 
communist!  Possibly  a  handful  of  these  communist 
works  may  have  contained  a  certain  amount  of  reliable 
information. 

Finally,  the  radiogram  gives  a  good  and  excellent 
example  of  the  naive  habit  of  the  Soviets  of  putting 
forth  promises  as  identical  with  achievements.  For  in- 
stance, we  have  the  following  list  of  the  sections  of  the 
department  of  public  instruction  in  the  Province  of 
Penza: 

1.  Cultural  and  educational  social  activities. 

2.  Libraries. 

3.  Lectures  and  schools  for  adults. 

4.  The  Museum. 

5.  Popular  lectures  and  conferences. 

6.  Cottage  reading-rooms. 

7.  People's  houses. 


SOVIETISM  AND  THE  BOLSHEVIKI       83 

8.  Proletarian  universities. 

9.  Popular  theaters. 

10.  Clubs. 

11.  Scientific  societies. 

To  newspaper  reporters  who  have  given  no  thought 
to  the  necessary  ramifications  of  educational  work  even 
in  its  most  crude  form,  and  to  newspaper  readers  simi- 
larly placed,  this  list  is  doubtless  impressive,  but,  as  a 
matter  of  fact,  it  means  nothing.  There  is  no  indica- 
tion of  how  much  is  done  nor  any  comparison  with  simi- 
lar previous  work  in  Russia  or  in  other  countries,  while 
there  is  every  reason  to  suppose  that  in  the  condition 
now  prevailing  in  Russia  all  this  work  is  crude  to  the 
last  degree  and  promising  only  to  the  enthusiastic  Bol- 
shevist fanatic. 

Through  the  wholesale  revolt  of  the  teachers  of  the 
Russian  common  schools  early  in  the  revolution,  we 
know  something  of  the  destructive  work  of  the  Bol- 
shevists in  the  sphere  of  education;  Lunacharsky  con- 
fessed that  the  numerical  deficiency  of  common  school 
teachers  had  just  been  made  good  from  communist  ranks. 
Is  it  necessary  to  picture  the  equipment  of  the  average 
literate  communist  as  a  school  teacher?  And  yet  we 
are  assured  that  communism  was  the  first  requirement. 

The  deficiency  in  secondary  school  teachers  has  not 
yet  been  made  up.  The  following  quotations  from  the 
interview  of  Lincoln  Eyre  with  Lunacharsky  (New  York 
World,  March  27,  1920)  show  that  the  Bolshevist  in- 
terest in  education  is  to  use  the  schools  for  propaganda 
purposes. 

"  We  can  only  intrust  the  teaching  of  our  children 
to  those  who  share  the  ideals  to  which  we  aspire. 


84  SOVIETISM 

"The  situation  is  still  cloudy  as  regards  the  sec- 
ondary stage  of  the  uniform  industrial  school." 

"Our  second  difficulty  is  closely  linked  with  the 
hostile  attitude  of  the  secondary  teachers.  Instruc- 
tion in  the  bases  of  Communism  must  be  developed 
to  a  considerable  extent  in  the  high  schools.  It  can- 
not be  done  unless  the  teachers  are  themselves  Com- 
munists or  sufficiently  in  sympathy  with  Communist 
principles  to  essay  with  a  full  measure  of  sincerity 
to  implant  a  sympathetic  understanding  of  these 
principles  in  the  minds  of  their  pupils." 

"Vigorous  efforts  have  resulted  in  the  establish- 
ment of  a  considerable,  though  still  inadequate, 
number  of  training  centers  for  teachers. 

"Thus  the  former  Catherine  Institute,  one  of 
Moscow's  foremost  institutions  of  learning,  is  de- 
voted altogether  to  preparing  for  educational  work, 
a  rapidly  growing  class  of  Communistic  instructors. 
Graduates  of  this  institute  are  sent  out  into  the 
country  to  spread  the  knowledge  they  have  acquired 
among  their  less  forward  colleagues.  There  was 
opened  on  Feb.  1  the  so-called  Sverdloff  University, 
to  which  will  come  students  from  all  over  Russia,  de- 
sirous of  gaining  a  thorough  insight  into  Communist 
doctrines  from  the  political,  social,  and  economic 
point  of  view.  Sverdloff  University  is  designed  pri- 
marily for  the  training  of  the  exponents  of  Com- 
munism and  world  revolution  but  it  will  undoubt- 
edly produce  plenty  of  good  teacher  material." 

We  are  now  in  a  position  to  grasp  firmly  the  reason 
for  new  "educational  movement"  of  which  the  Bolshe- 
vists and  their  admirers  in  all  countries  are  making  so 
much.  The  propaganda  cannot  be  spread  so  quickly  and 
effectively  by  word  of  mouth  as  it  can  by  printed  matter. 
For  this  reason  the  ukase  compelling  all  citizens  between 
the  ages  of  eight  and  fifty  forthwith  to  become  literate 
has  attached  to  it  the  severest  penalties.    Evading  the 


SOVIETISM  AND  THE  BOLSHEVIKI       85 

duties  specified  by  the  decree  or  interfering  with  its 
provisions  means  trial  by  the  dreaded  "revolutionary 
tribune" — to  which,  by  the  way,  all  matters  of  im- 
portance to  the  Bolshevist  government  are  turned  over — 
being  taken  away  from  the  less  easily  controlled  People's 
Courts.  Besides  the  severe  penalties  in  the  background 
any  one  failing  to  become  literate  is  not  only  disfran- 
chised— (which  may  be  justified) — but,  according  to 
Lincoln  Eyre,  "receives  only  a  third  category  food 
card." 

\»e  can  imagine  the  equipment  for  school  teaching 
and  educational  work  of  a  government  which  fixes  such 
barbarous  penalties  even  on  the  failure  to  learn. 

But  reading  is  indispensable  to  Bolshevism.  With  a 
reading  public  one  propagandist  fanatic  can  do  one 
hundred  times  as  much  work  as  he  could  by  word  of 
mouth. 

Lincoln  Eyre  recognizes  that,  besides  the  propaganda 
carried  on  in  the  schools,  the  avowed  propaganda  cam- 
paign is  also  an  important  and  integral  part  of  "the 
Soviets'  educational  activity."     (See  Chapter  YII.X 


CHAPTER  VII 

WHAT  SUPERIORITY  HAVE  THE  BOLSHEVIKI 
DEVELOPED  ? 

A  superiority  in  propaganda.  Among  the  educated 
peoples  any  successful  long  continued  propaganda  has 
been  impossible  for  so  many  years  that  the  use  of  propa- 
ganda had  been  abandoned.  The  democratic  peoples 
had  almost  forgotten  the  art  of  propaganda  among  the 
ignorant.  Of  this  the  Bolsheviki  have  made  a  life-long 
study,  using  to  begin  with  the  experience  of  their  Ger- 
man Socialist  masters  in  this  field.  Having  made  this 
for  years  the  sole  object  of  their  existence  they  have 
been  able  conscientiously  to  throw  overboard  all 
scruples  and  so  to  become  masters  of  propaganda,  not 
only  among  the  ignorant,  the  wretched,  the  thoughtless, 
but  also  among  all  those  with  "the  will  to  believe." 

The  Bolsheviki  are  not 
geniuses  or  social  philosophers, 
representatives  of  the  masses.  (Not  one  out  of 
ten  of  the  leaders  is  a  workingman.  They  have 
gone  to  the  masses  with  a  ready-made  dogma, 
which  they  have  constantly  re-worded  to  suit 
mass  psychology.) 

Do  the  Bolsheviki  Represent  the  Proletariat? — Bol- 
shevist statistics  show  that  the  Bolshevist  sect,  which 
governs  the  Soviets  with  an  iron  rule  in  the  name  of 

86 


SOVIETISM  AND  THE  BOLSHEVIKI       87 

the  proletariat,  represents  neither  the  rural  nor  urban 
masses  (see  Chapters  I  and  VIII).  After  eighteen 
months  it  did  not  represent  even  the  factory  workers — 
not  even  in  its  stronghold,  Moscow.  Here  are  a  few 
figures  from  the  Bolshevist  publication,  "Communar" 
(May  17,  1919) : 

"The  Sytin  Printing  Works— Employs  1,600  per- 
sons. In  the  communist  nucleus  there  are  10  com- 
munists and  60  sympathizers.  After  a  meeting  at 
which  an  anti-Kolchak  resolution  was  defeated,  a 
"  vindication  committee '  was  elected  to  explain  in  the 
press  the  true  attitude  of  the  shop :  The  workers  of 
the  shop  are  against  Kolchak,  but  they  would  not 
adopt  the  resolution  because  it  came  from  the  Bol- 
sheviki. 

"  '  Postavschik ' — Employs  2,660  workers.  The 
nucleus  has  36  communists  and  10  sympathizers. 
Of  these  there  are  only  8  persons  in  the  place  and 
no  party  work  is  therefore  conducted.  The  shop- 
committee  consists  of  communists.  Literature  is 
well  distributed.  Seven  hundred  copies  of  newspa- 
pers and  from  fifteen  to  200  copies  of  magazines." 

Here  we  see  that  even  the  immense  Soviet  subsidies 
for  propaganda  are  futile — in  spite  of  the  fact  that  the 
workers  are  advanced  Socialists,  shut  off  from  the  out- 
side world,  and  without  an  independent  press.  It  will 
be  noted  that  in  most  of  these  factories  the  economic  de- 
pendence of  the  workers  on  the  Soviets  for  jobs,  bread 
tickets,  and  factory  subsidies — to  say  nothing  of  terror- 
ism— has  led  to  Bolshevist  committees  or  shop  officials: 

"  'Bromley' — 1,200  workers  employed.  The  group 
consists  of  10  communists  and  15  sympathizers.  The 
group  meets  every  week.  The  factory  committee  is 
communist.    The  general  state  of  mind  is  improving. 


"88  SOVIETISM 

"  'Emem' — Employs  1,400  workers,  850  of  whom 
are  women.  The  nucleus  has  40  communists  and  8 
sympathizers.  Their  influence  in  the  factory  is  little. 
The  presiding  officers  of  the  shop-committee  are 
communists.  Lectures  are  arranged  occasionally. 
Newspapers  are  well  distributed. 

11  '  Centrosoyuz ' — 900  workingwomen  are  em- 
ployed. The  nucleus  has  25  communists  and  4  sym- 
pathizers. The  women  are  very  backward  and  party 
work  among  them  is  very  difficult. 

"  'The  Electric  Station  of  1886'— 1,300  workmen 
are  employed.  The  communist  group  has  27  mem- 
bers. Party  work  is  not  being  conducted.  The  gen- 
eral state  of  mind  is  calm.  The  shop-committee  is 
communist." 

The  Bolshevists,  so  popular  among  the  distant  work- 
ingmen  of  France  and  England,  are  ill  appreciated  at 
home.  The  "Communar"  lists  16,000  workers  in  one 
part  of  Moscow  and  finds  only  687  Bolshevist  party 
members  and  sympathizers.  Only  one  union  in  the  entire 
district  shows  even  half  its  members  in  either  of  these 
classes.  Including  this  we  have  only  2,500  pro-Bolshe- 
vists in  20,000. 

As  Gorky  declares,  Bolshevism  does  not  emanate  from 
the  Russian  proletariat,  and  is  against  their  interests: 

"The  practical  Bolshevism  of  the  anarchistic- 
communalistic  visionaries  which  emanates  from  the 
Smolny  Institute  is  injurious  to  Russia,  and,  above 
all,  to  the  laboring  class." 

Bolshevism  is  without  the  support  either  of  the  Russian 
urban  workingman  or  of  the  Russian  people: 
In  the  Province  of  Riazan  the  party  had  less  than 


SOVIETISM  AND  THE  BOLSHEVIKI        89 

6,000  members  out  of  a  population  of  three  millions 
("Izvestia,"  May  9,  1919). 

In  the  Province  of  Kalouga  the  party  has  less  than 
4,000  members  out  of  a  population  of  two  millions  ("Iz- 
vestia," May  8,  1919). 

In  the  Province  of  Moscow,  including  many  suburbs 
and  a  total  of  more  than  a  million  inhabitants,  the  party 
had  less  than  3,000  members  ("Izvestia,"  February, 
1919). 

In  February,  1919,  the  report  of  the  8th  Communist 
Congress  showed  that  the  membership  of  the  party  was 
less  than  one-half  of  one  per  cent,  of  the  population  of 
Soviet  Russia. 

It  must  be  remembered  that  membership  in  the  Bol- 
shevist party  may  now  secure  public  office  or  a  private 
job,  and  certainly  secures  protection  and  bread. 

As  to  public  offices,  a  leading  Bolshevist,  Monastirev, 
says  in  the  Bolshevist  paper  "Pravda"  of  the  14th  of 
May,  1919:  "All  history  has  not  shown  such  a  Chinese 
system  in  the  large  number  of  functionaries  as  our  So- 
viet institutions.  This  has  been  commented  on  in  all 
the  Soviet  papers."  Yet  in  spite  of  all  these  rewards  for 
joining  the  party,  ninety-eight  adult  Russians  out  of 
one  hundred  have  refused  to  have  anything  to  do  with  it 

In  the  Soviets,  on  the  contrary,  the  situation  is  re- 
versed. In  these  institutions — which  are  supposed  to 
represent  at  least  the  urban  proletariat  and  the  poorest 
peasants — that  is  a  considerable  minority  of  Russia — 
the  Bolshevists  always  maintain  a  preponderance  by  de- 
crees of  the  dictators  or  by  the  help  of  the  Red  Army. 

1 '  At  the  second  congress  of  Soviets  of  the  Province 
of  Mojjcow,  the  Social  Revolutionists  were  excluded. 


90  SOVIETISM 

The  deputies  without  party,  who  protested  (against 
this  exclusion),  were  arrested  by  the  Extra  Com- 
mission for  Fighting  the  Counter-Revolution. " 
("Izvestia,"  No.  191,  1919.) 

The  same  newspaper  gives  information  of  the  disso- 
lution of  the  Soviets  of  Cronstadt,  Voronege,  and  other 
important  places,  or  the  exclusion  of  non-Bolshevists. 

Political  strikes  have  been  frequent  and  have  been 
suppressed  with  the  greatest  severity,  being  denounced 
by  Lenine  as  treason  against  the  dictatorship  of  the 
proletariat.  According  to  the  Bolshevist  "Krasnaia 
Gazeta"  a  Petrograd  strike  affecting  35,000  working- 
men  (half  of  those  of  Petrograd  at  that  time)  lasted 
from  the  6th  to  the  26th  of  March,  1919.  The  previous 
summer  the  Petrograd  labor  unions  struck  as  a  protest 
against  coercion  in  the  Soviet  elections. 

Maxim  Gorky's  newspaper,  the  "Novaya  Zhisn," 
which  furnishes  the  report  probably  most  nearly  correct, 
shows  that  the  Bolsheviki  won  through  the  votes  of  the 
unemployed,  the  Red  guards,  artificially  created  govern- 
ment organizations  and  alleged  unions.  The  Soviets, 
at  the  point  of  the  bayonet,  arrested  opposition  leaders, 
stopped  meetings,  suspended  newspapers  and  closed  fac- 
tories and  workingmen's  clubs. 

In  all  the  Obuchovsky  and  Nevsky  district  martial 
law  was  proclaimed.  Many  workingmen  were  arrested. 
Patrols  and  armored  automobiles  filled  the  districts. 

As  a  result  a  one-day  protest  strike  was  declared. 

According  to  a  resolution  adopted  by  the  Petrograd 
shop-stewards'  committees,  day  and  night,  in  the  streets 
and  in  houses,  murders  occurred,  carried  out  not  only  by 
criminals  but  also  by  responsible  agents  of  the  Soviet 
government.     The  resolution  declared: 


SOVIETISM  AND  THE  BOLSHEVIKI        91 

"Murders  are  committed  in  the  guise  of  fighting 
the  counter-revolution,  and  the  victims  belong  not 
only  to  the  enemies  of  the  people  but  very  frequently 
to  the  most  peaceful  class  of  citizens,  workers,  stu- 
dents, peasants  and  soldiers. 

"Murders  are  committed  without  any  inquiry 
or  trial,  deliberately  and  coldly,  and  in  the  name  of 
the  revolutionary  proletariat. 

' '  We,  the  representatives  of  the  Petrograd  work- 
ing class,  before  the  entire  people  of  Russia,  pro- 
claim that  these  murders  are  polluting  the  honor 
of  the  revolution,  of  democracy  and  socialism.  We 
repudiate  with  indignation  all  responsibility  for 
these  sanguinary  deeds,  which  form  a  stain  upon 
our  socialist  banner. 

"We  call  upon  all  workers  and  upon  all  honest 
citizens  to  join  us  in  our  protest  and  demand  a  pub- 
lic trial  of  the  authors  of  these  bestialities  and 
murders. ' ' 

What  Is  New  About  Bolshevism? — The  characteristics 
of  Bolshevism  so  far  mentioned  do  not  present  any  new 
features.  History  has  known  of  many  other  political 
sects,  struggling  for  power,  subordinating  their  own  doc- 
trines and  all  other  principles  to  that  struggle,  utterly 
ruthless  in  the  use  of  violence  and  falsehood  for  their 
object,  and  fighting  to  the  death  against  all  liberty  and 
self-government  except  that  prescribed  by  the  sect. 

If  we  are  to  grasp  Bolshevism  at  all  the  understanding 
of  these  characteristics  is  the  first  essential.  We  come 
now  to  what  is  new  about  it.  That  there  is  something 
new  is  obvious  at  first  glance.  It  is  new  that  an  inter- 
national sect  has  captured  the  government  of  a  great 
modern  nation.  It  is  new  that  an  ultra-revolutionary 
sect  professing  proletarianism  has  secured  the  support 
or  sympathy  of  considerable  numbers  of  non-proletarian 


92  SOVIETISM 

intellectuals  in  many  countries.  It  is  new  that  a  crude 
propaganda,  so  extreme  that  it  is  fantastic,  more  violent 
than  any  we  have  known  for  centuries,  with  only  the 
slightest  foundation  of  fact — and  even  less  in  logic — 
should  receive  a  world-wide  hearing. 

All  this  seems  not  only  new  but  startling.  Surely,  it 
will  be  said,  Bolshevists  must  have  some  extraordinary 
gift  or  powers  to  have  accomplished  all  this  in  such  a 
short  space  of  time !  There  is,  of  course,  an  underlying 
superiority  and  efficiency.  But  that  superiority  is  not 
what  it  seems  to  be  on  the  surface.  All  intelligent 
people  are  now  interested  in  the  Soviet  phenomenon. 
But  only  a  handful,  outside  of  Russia,  are  familiar  with 
the  long  preparatory  evolution  of  Bolshevism  before  the 
Soviet  revolution,  and  comparatively  few  have  had  either 
the  will  or  the  opportunity  fully  to  grasp  the  very  ex- 
ceptional conditions  in  Russia — quite  beyond  the  imagi- 
nation of  the  average  western  mind — which  made  every- 
thing ready  for  the  Bolshevists  and  almost  automatically 
carried  them  into  power. 

Those  who  have  studied  and  participated  in  the  inter- 
national revolutionary  movements  of  Russia  and  other 
countries  for  the  past  quarter  century  (since  Bolshevism 
was  born)  can  testify  to  the  gradual  and  natural  evolu- 
tion of  this  movement.  This  does  not  mean  that,  after 
coming  into  power,  it  has  furnished  no  surprises.  Nor 
would  such  inside  observers  deny  that  some  of  these 
surprises  have  been  of  a  fundamental  importance — for 
example  the  unexpected  willingness  of  the  Bolshevists  to 
enter  into  arrangements  with  kaiserism  and  capitalism 
at  the  inevitable  cost  of  the  peoples  and  revolutionary 
movements  of  other  countries.  But  nearly  all  the  fun- 
damentals have  remained  what  the  leading  international 


SOVIETISM  AND  THE  BOLSHEVIKI        93 

Socialists  near  at  hand  expected  and  predicted  they 
would  be — for  example,  Kautsky  of  Germany,  Guesde 
of  France,  Bauer  of  Austria,  Branting  of  Sweden,  and 
many  others.* 

"What  then  is  the  explanation  of  Bolshevist  power — 
according  to  these  most  competent  observers? 

The  Bolshevist  plan  for  revolution  did  not  spring  up 
suddenly  in  the  brain  of  Nicolai  Lenine  or  any  man. 
For  twenty-five  years  Lenine  and  hundreds  and  thous- 
ands of  the  members  of  his  sect  have  been  studying  how 
to  attain  power.  Their  purpose,  sectarian  rule,  required 
a  dictatorship.  But  where  should  they  obtain  their  fol- 
lowing ?  The  mass  of  the  Russian  people,  the  peasantry, 
had  shown,  by  following  the  populists  and  social  revo- 
lutionists, that  they  wanted  a  great  peasant  democracy — 
a  fact  finally  demonstrated  by  all  elections,  from  that  of 
the  first  Duma  (1906)  to  the  Constituent  Assembly 
(1917).    That  excludes  a  Bolshevist  dictatorship. 

The  brain-workers,  minor  professionals,  the  "  intellec- 
tuals "  and  middle  class  generally,  inclined  either  to 
radical  liberalism  or  to  the  other  Socialist  parties  (the 

*  The  writer  had  the  advantage  of  interviewing  Lenine  at 
length  in  Kussia  as  early  as  1907  and  of  two  years'  intimate 
contact  with  and  study  of  his  and  other  Eussian  revolutionary 
movements  at  that  time.  He  sat  with  Lenine  throughout  the 
important  colonial  debate  at  the  international  Socialist  Congress 
at  Stuttgart  and  later  met  Trotzky,  Lunacharsky  and  other  Eus- 
sian Bolshevist  and  revolutionary  leaders  in  their  places  of  exile 
in  Germany,  Austria,  Switzerland,  London,  Paris  and  New  York 
— using  this  knowledge  as  the  foundation  for  several  books  on  the 
international  Socialist  movement  favorably  received  by  the  So- 
cialists of  several  countries.  For  example,  Jean  Longuet,  the 
pro-Bolshevist  leader  of  the  French  Socialists,  has  said  that 
the  author's  book  on  the  Socialists  and  the  War  (1915)  was  the 
best  work  on  the  subject.  The  writer  is,  therefore,  confident 
that  he  here  accurately  reproduces  the  views  of  the  great  mod- 
erates and  scholars  among  the  Socialists  of  the  leading  nations 
(see  also  Chapter  XIX). 


94  SOVIETISM 

Social  Revolutionists  or  the  Menshevik  wing  of  the 
Social  Democrats).  But  anyway  this  "intellectual  pro- 
letariat"— the  name  given  these  elements  when  they  are 
favorably  viewed,  though  they  are  known  as  bourgeois 
when  in  disfavor — are  not  numerous  enough  to  furnish 
the  basis  for  a  Bolshevist  dictatorship) — the  frankly 
avowed  objective  of  Lenine's  pre-revolutionary  writings. 

The  "conscious"  proletariat,  that  is  the  skilled  work- 
men and  labor  unionists,  were  overwhelmingly  moderate 
Socialists  of  the  Menshevik  wing — the  most  bitter  op- 
ponents of  the  Bolsheviki. 

What  was  left  then  but  to  appeal  to  the  unskilled  and 
"unconscious"  mass  and  to  make  them  "conscious" — 
of  Bolshevism  ?  Among  these  could  be  included  not  only 
the  unskilled  of  the  cities  but  the  least  able  peasants, 
become  part-time  laborers — and,  later,  peasants  cut  off 
from  their  villages  by  the  war,  and  become  professional 
soldiers — but  soldiers  who  wanted,  above  all,  to  stop 
fighting. 

In  the  Soviets  (composed  of  workmen  and  soldiers) 
these  elements — once  mobilized  by  the  Bolsheviki — in- 
evitably became  the  majority. 

For  a  quarter  century  the  Bolshevists  had  developed 
the  seed.  And  here,  at  last,  was  the  fertile  soil.  And  in 
several  other  countries — such  as  Hungary  and  Italy — 
conditions  were  not  dissimilar.  For  a  quarter  century 
thousands  of  able  propagandists — cooperating — had 
been  giving  their  entire  time  and  energy  (or  most  of  it) 
to  elaborating  every  possible  appeal,  truthful  or  un- 
truthful, that  could  hold  such  a  mass  together. 

The  superiority  of  the  Bolshevists  then  consists  in  this 
laboriously  achieved  mastery  of  propaganda  for  the  most 
ignorant  and  most  desperately  needy  part  of  the  mass — 


SOVIETISM  AND  THE  BOLSHEVIKI        95 

an  ideal  element  to  be  molded  to  the  propagandists '  mind 
and  will,  once  a  hearing  is  obtained — especially  after  the 
propagandists  have  seized  the  seats  of  power  and  can 
give  every  outward  symbol  of  success.  No  more  sub- 
servient and  uncritical  following  could  be  imagined  or 
desired. 

The  Bolshevists  undoubtedly  have  some  first-class 
minds  among  them — but  they  are  minds  of  the  peculiar 
and  abnormal  type  of  persons  who  are  willing  and  able 
to  abandon  themselves  utterly  to  securing  leadership  of 
the  ignorant  by  any  and  all  means  that  will  achieve  that 
end. 

The  Extraordinary  Propaganda  Efficiency  of  the 
Soviets. — We  can  agree  with  Lincoln  Eyre  when  he  re- 
fers to  the  extraordinary  efficiency  with  which  the 
Bolsheviki  propagate  their  theories  among  their  fellow 
countrymen.  Undoubtedly  the  Bolsheviki  have  devel- 
oped one  of  the  most  amazing  organizations  the  world 
has  ever  seen  for  propaganda  among  the  ignorant  and 
needy.  The  efficiency  of  this  machine  for  its  purposes 
is  scarcely  inferior  to  that  of  Prussian  militarism.  In- 
deed the  German  propaganda  bureau  undoubtedly  paved 
the  way  for  the  Bolsheviki,  as  did  also  the  efficient  prop- 
aganda machine  of  the  German  Socialists.  The  capacity 
of  the  Bolsheviki  in  this  direction  rises  to  the  height  of 
genius,  although  it  must  be  said  that  they  have  had  few, 
if  any,  competitors.  No  large  part  of  any  civilized  dem- 
ocratic people  could  conscientiously  so  discard  all  in- 
terfering principles  as  effectively  to  compete — even  if 
they  were  disposed  to  do  so.  But  the  important  point 
is  that  all  the  successes  of  the  Bolsheviki  without  ex- 
ception can  be  traced  to  this  one  "superiority." 
For  example,  take  the  "aeroplanes  which  dropped 


96  SOYIETISM 

appeals,  literature,  etc.,"  used,  as  we  read  in  the  official 
Soviet  radiogram  quoted  in  the  previous  chapter,  for 
appealing  to  the  imagination  of  the  peasants.  No  trained 
school  teacher  would  advocate  such  methods  because  he 
would  realize  that  the  amount  of  literature  distributed 
and  the  attention  it  got  would  not  justify  the  trouble, 
hut  could  there  be  a  better  way  to  strike  the  imagination 
of  the  illiterate?  Then  we  have  the  use  of  the  moving 
pictures  into  which  the  Bolsheviki  have  turned  a  large 
part  of  their  resources.  The  innumerable  newspapers 
and  pamphlets  (the  pamphlets  and  newspapers  of  rival 
revolutionary  parties  being  prohibited,  or  all  but  pro- 
hibited) .  It  may  be  said  that  a  large  part  of  the  several 
hundred  thousand  members  of  the  Bolshevist  palrty 
speak  or  write  and  constantly  demand  means  of  expres- 
sion and  an  audience.  But,  above  all,  the  entire  resources 
of  the  state  are  put  at  their  disposal,  all  printing  plants 
are  seized  for  their  use,  and  indeed,  the  whole  structure 
of  the  Soviet  government  rests  upon  the  foundation  of 
propaganda.  Danton  said  "after  bread,  education." 
Lenine  practically  declares,  before  bread,  propaganda. 
No  other  interpretation  can  be  given  to  the  vast  expen- 
ditures for  propaganda  in  a  starving  country.  The  head 
of  the  propaganda  department,  after  the  head  of  the 
Red  Army,  is  undoubtedly  the  most  important  post  in 
the  commissary  cabinet. 

The  energy  and  organization  of  this  vast  propaganda 
movement  are  equal  to  its  absolutely  unprincipled  use 
of  any  and  all  arguments  or  statements  of  supposed  fact 
that  will  accomplish  the  purpose.  As  an  illustration 
take  the  following  account  of  the  propaganda  trains 
given  by  Lincoln  Eyre  (New  York  World,  March  27, 
1920) : 


SOVIETISM  AND  THE  BOLSHEVIKI        97 

"The  cars  of  the  train  were  painted  in  fearsome 
fashion,  somewhat  reminiscent  of  circus  trains  in 
America,  with  allegorical  scenes  luridly  depicting 
capitalistic  serpents  being  slain  by  the  Red  Army, 
happy  peasants  exchanging  fraternal  greetings  with 
equally  happy  workers  and  so  forth." 

"There  were  five  such  trains  in  existence,  each 
boasting  ten  cars,  equipped  with  libraries,  cinemato- 
graphs, a  printing  plant  that  publishes  a  daily 
paper,  a  wireless  equipment  and  a  telephone  which 
at  each  station  could  be  hooked  up  with  the  local 
exchange. ' ' 

The  Undemocratic  Origin  of  the  Propaganda. — Bol- 
shevist literature  frequently  betrays  the  fact  that  the 
entire  propaganda  is  from  the  top  down  and  in  its 
origin,  almost  entirely  external  to  the  working-class. 
The  chief  Bolshevist  himself  gives  us  frequent  examples. 

"Lenine,  in  a  message  from  Moscow,  dated  Feb- 
ruary 23,  1920,  addressed  to  the  French  Socialists' 
Congress  at  Strasbourg,  in  advocacy  of  'the  dicta- 
torship of  the  proletariat,'  called  attention  to  an 
article  which  he  published  in  the  Communist  In- 
ternational publication,  declaring  that  'the  recog- 
nition of  the  dictatorship  signifies  the  absolute 
necessity  of  mercilessly  revealing  the  treacherous 
role  of  Social  Democracy  during  the  war'  and  the 
'necessity  of  lowering  one's  self  to  the  depth  of  the 
popular  masses  and  of  raising  them  to  the  necessary 
height  for  overthrowing  capitalism,  instead  of  lim- 
iting one's  self  to  a  fight  for  improvement  of  the 
conditions  of  labor.'  " 

It  would  be  interesting  to  know  how  many  of  the 
300,000  Bolshevist  Party  members  are  of  the  Slavic  race 
and  of  the  manual  working-class,  to  which  the  party 
appeals.    If  the  proportion  of  these  elements  of  the  Rus- 


98  SOVIETISM 

sian  population  is  maintained  inside  the  party,  they 
should  constitute  90  per  cent,  of  the  organization.  If 
all  indications  are  to  be  trusted  it  may  be  doubted  if 
they  are  one  half. 

How  Does  the  Propaganda  Succeed? — By  teaching 
whatever  the  particular  social  group  they  happen  to  be 
aiming  at  desires  to  believe.  To  the  British  and  Amer- 
ican middle  class  "intellectual"  they  claim  to  advocate 
or  actually  to  be  putting  into  practice  a  whole  program 
of  constructive  democracy.  To  the  illiterate  masses — es- 
pecially those  of  Russia,  Italy,  and  other  backward 
countries — they  preach  the  simplest  nihilism  of  "prole- 
tarian" destruction.  Everything  hitherto  known  is 
then  labeled  "bourgeois"  and  hence  the  unskilled  pro- 
letarian is  convinced  that  he  is  the  intellectual  equal  of 
the  skilled  and  educated  workers  of  hand  and  brain  (the 
bourgeoisie). 

The  most  authoritative  Bolshevik  writings  and  pro- 
nouncements until  recently — having  been  addressed  to 
the  ignorant  and  unskilled — are  all  based  on  this  second 
platform:  the  destruction  of  existing  civilizations,  insti- 
tutions, and  ideals. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

CAN  THE  SOVIETS  WIN  BACK  THE  PEOPLE? 

Eighty-five  per  cent,  of  the  Russian  people  are  pea- 
sants ;  so  far  the  peasants  have  been  paying  the  bill  for 
the  Soviets.  Factory  workmen,  railroad  workers  and 
all  other  classes  of  workers  in  all  other  industries,  except 
only  the  agriculturists,  have  been  heavily  subsidized. 
These  subsidies  have  not  been  paid  for — as  is  com- 
monly asserted — by  the  issues  of  paper  money;  for  wages 
and  salaries  have  been  steadily  raised  in  approximate 
proportion  to  the  increase  in  the  cost  of  living  or  the 
fall  in  the  value  of  Bolshevik  roubles. 

The  peasant  has  paid  the  bill — by  the  forced  surrender 
of  a  part  of  his  product. 

There  is  no  explanation  whatever  that  could  be  of- 
fered by  the  Soviets  that  would  satisfactorily  explain 
to  the  peasantry  this  active  expropriation.  Not  even 
the  blockade  has  any  bearing  on  the  subject  in  his  mind. 
For  it  has  not  been  the  Entente  which  has  entered  into 
the  villages  and  has  taken  away  his  crops.  He  knows 
that  the  Entente  has  not  created  the  food  shortage 
and  the  Bolsheviki  themselves  show  that  they,  too,  are 
fully  aware  of  this  fact. 

Compulsory  Agriculture. — In  November,  1919,  Le- 
nine,  speaking  before  the  ' '  First  All-Russian  Conference 
on  the  Work  in  the  Villages,"  disclosed,  for  the  hun- 

99 


100  SOVIETISM 

dredth  time,  the  ultimate  dependence  of  Bolshevik  suc- 
cess upon  the  peasantry,  and  the  hopelessness,  therefore, 
of  the  Soviet  outlook  in  the  country.  He  said  (accord- 
ing to  "Izvestia"  of  November  13) : 

"Here  we  have  the  most  complicated  and  impor- 
tant problem  of  socialist  reconstruction.  The  So- 
viet and  Socialist  power  will  be  finally  solidified, 
only  when  the  peasant  is  in  unquestioning  alliance 
with  the  workers. 

' '  The  victory  over  Denikine,  which  is  now  not  re- 
mote, will  not  be  the  final  destruction  of  capital- 
ism. This  is  understood  by  everybody.  They  will 
make  more  than  one  attempt  yet  to  throw  the  noose 
about  the  throat  of  Soviet  Russia.  The  peasant, 
therefore,  has  no  alternative;  either  he  will  help 
the  worker — and  then  we  shall  conquer  capitalism — 
or  the  least  little  wavering  will  bring  again  the 
shackles  of  capitalism. '  ' 

Lenine  understands,  as  he  has  understood  from  the 
beginning,  that  there  is  no  outlook  for  Russian  Soviet- 
ism  if  the  peasant  continues  obstinately  to  reject  it. 
Therefore,  his  efforts  are  bent  largely  on  the  peasantry 
and  his  overtures  are  ceaseless.     He  declares: 

"The  peasant  who  lives  by  his  own  labor  is  the 
friend  of  the  worker.  To  this  friend  the  worker 
will  give  his  assistance,  him  he  regards  as  an  equal. 
For  such  an  ally  the  workers'  power  does  every- 
thing possible,  and  there  is  no  sacrifice  which  the 
Soviets  would  not  readily  make  to  satisfy  the  pea- 
sant-toiler who  lives  by  his  own  labor." 

This  is  the  great  middle  peasantry  which  has  been  in 
the  habit  neither  of  hiring  nor  of  being  hired  (as  Lenine 
says  below).  But  this  majority  of  the  peasantry  has 
not  merely  refused  to  accept  Soviet  rulings,  it  has  re- 
volted.   As  Lenine  says: 


SOVIETISM  AND  THE  BOLSHEVIKI      101 

"Among  the  peasants  are  very  often  to  be  observed 
extraordinary  disaffections,  which  reach  the  stage 
sometimes  of  repudiations  of  the  entire  system  of 
Soviet  economics." 

Therefore  in  order  to  make  any  progress  whatever 
this  hostility  had  to  be  dealt  with.  Whatever  friend- 
ship was  to  be  offered  them  later,  their  open  hostility 
could  not  be  ignored.  Therefore,  the  Herculean  task 
was  undertaken  of  introducing  iron  order  into  Russia's 
hundred  thousand  villages — a  task  never  accomplished 
even  under  the  Gzarism.    Says  Lenine : 

"It  is  necessary  that  the  work  in  the  village  should 
be  conducted  in  a  disciplined  manner,  like  the  work 
in  the  Red  Army." 

No  part  of  the  country  is  more  averse  to  discipline 
than  the  village;  nothing  would  be  more  certain  to 
make  its  hostility  permanent. 

But  it  is  Lenine 's  economic  rather  than  his  political 
policy  which  is  causing  the  chief  trouble.    He  says: 

"Between  the  peasants  who  bore  the  burden  of 
capitalism  and  those  peasants  who  exploited  others, 
stands  the  mass  of  the  peasantry.  And  here  our 
task  is  the  most  difficult." 

"In  this  case  we  determined  our  policy  firmly. 
We  say  to  the  middle  peasantry,  in  a  language  which 
they  understand  best,  that  there  will  be  no  attempt 
to  force  a  transition  to  communal  economy." 

So  far,  so  good.  (Though,  for  the  adoption  of  the 
contrary  policy,  see  below.)  The  peasant  has  his  land, 
but  he  is  not  entitled  to  its  product!  Lenine  continues: 

"The  middle  peasantry  is  undoubtedly  accus- 
tomed to  individual  farming;  the  middle  peasantry 


102  SOVIETISM 

— these  are  the  peasant-owners.  Although  these  pea- 
sants have  no  land  in  their  ownership,  although  pri- 
vate property  on  land  is  abolished,  yet,  the  economy 
remains  in  the  hands  of  the  peasant,  and  mainly, 
the  peasant  remains  the  owner  in  regard  to  the 
means  of  sustenance.  Being  the  owner  of  the  re- 
mainder of  the  grain,  he  becomes  the  exploiter  of 
those  who  have  no  bread  at  all.  He  becomes  the 
exploiter  of  the  workers.  Here  lies  the  fundamental 
contradiction.  The  peasant,  being  a  toiler,  being  a 
man  who  lives  on  his  own  labor,  the  man  who  bore 
all  the  burdens  of  the  landowner  and  capitalist, 
stands  with  the  workers.  He  understands  more  and 
more  every  day  that  only  in  unity  with  the  working 
class  will  he  be  able  to  get  rid  of  the  capitalist.  And 
the  peasant  as  an  owner,  who  has  in  his  possession 
the  remainder  of  the  bread,  thinks  that  he  can  sell 
that  bread  on  his  own  conditions." 

This  economic  conflict,  we  see,  cannot  be  avoided.  It 
is  permanent,  the  result  of  the  economic  collapse  of  Bol- 
shevist Russia. 

Two  economic  facts  create  the  conflict,  neither  being 
remediable  either  by  force  or  the  most  daring  and  in- 
genious system  of  Soviet  ukases.  (1)  The  peasant  is  in 
first  possession  of  his  product  (despite  all  decrees),  and 
(2)  the  Soviets  have  little  or  nothing  to  offer  him  in 
exchange.    Let  Lenine  continue: 

"But  the  peasant  who  exploits,  who  has  a  sur- 
plus of  grain,  and  sells  it  to  the  starving  popula- 
tion at  profiteering  prices,  he  is  our  enemy.  The 
peasants  do  not  all  understand  that  unbridled  trad- 
ing in  grain  is  a  crime  against  the  state.  The  peasant 
is  accustomed  to  consider  this  his  right.  He  reasons 
this  way:  'I  produced  the  grain,  I  worked  on  it, 
the  grain  is  in  my  hands,  and  I  have  a  right  to 


SOVIETISM  AND  THE  BOLSHEVIKI     103 

trade  with  it. '  This  is  the  reasoning  of  the  peasant 
with  the  old  habit  of  an  owner. 

"With  a  right  distribution  of  bread  all  will  be 
satisfied,  and  then  we  will  be  able  to  get  out  of  all 
difficulties.  And  to  have  a  correct  distribution,  it 
is  necessary  that  the  peasants  should  assist  in  every 
way.  Here  there  will  be  no  indulgence  on  the  part 
of  the  Soviets.  The  peasant  must  give  the  surplus 
of  grain  to  the  state  in  the  form  of  a  loan.  At  pres- 
ent we  can  give  no  commodities  to  the  peasants  be- 
cause we  do  not  have  them;  there  is  no  coal,  the 
railroads  and  the  factories  are  stopping.  To  recon- 
struct the  destroyed  economy  it  is  necessary  that  the 
peasant  should,  from  the  first,  give  his  surplus  prod- 
ucts as  a  loan  to  the  state.  Only  with  such  loans 
will  we  be  able  to  get  out  of  all  difficulties. 

'  *  Every  peasant  will  agree  that  when  a  worker  is 
dying  from  starvation,  it  is  necessary  to  give  him 
bread  on  credit;  and  yet  when  it  comes  to  millions 
of  workers  and  millions  of  peasants  they  do  not  un- 
derstand it.  And  the  peasant  resorts  again  and 
again  to  the  old  form  of  exploitation." 

This  does  not  give  the  peasant's  side  of  the  case.  The 
peasant  contends  that  the  effort  is  being  made  to  com- 
pel him  to  bear  the  entire  burden  of  the  Soviet  experi- 
ment without  his  consent.  He  feels  that  Russian  agri- 
culture, the  most  wretched  and  backward  part  of  the 
whole  industrial  structure,  is  the  least  able  to  bear  this 
burden.  Lenine  declares  in  this  speech  that  the  hostile 
forces  in  the  village  ' '  must  be  brought  under  the  control 
of  the  real  representatives  of  the  proletariat,"  i.  e.,  the 
Bolsheviki,  and  he  repeatedly  says  that  the  urban  prole- 
tariat must  lead.  So  the  peasant  feels  that  even  if  there 
should  be  any  gain  from  Sovietism  he  will  be  the  last 
to  receive  a  dividend.  But  he  does  not  see  the  gain. 
So  far  he  is  getting  the  worst  of  it  at  every  point. 


104  SOVIETISM 

The  civil  war  has  been  waged  over  the  countryside 
rather  than  in  the  cities.  The  favored  bureaucracy  and 
Red  Army  have  taken  a  larger  portion  of  the  workmen 
than  of  the  peasants.  The  farms  are  producing  a  con- 
siderable part  of  their  normal  product,  the  factories 
only  a  small  part.  The  workingmen  are  being  sub- 
sidized through  the  government's  payment  of  the  vast 
sums  to  cover  the  industrial  deficits.  The  peasant  is 
seeing  his  diminishing  product  seized  without  com- 
pensation. His  agriculture  has  been  rapidly  degenerat- 
ing for  the  lack  of  every  essential — fertilizers,  imple- 
ments, animals,  seeds — which  he  can  only  buy  with  his 
" surplus."  Yet  this  surplus  is  seized  by  the  military 
detachments  as  a  "loan"  and  when  he  resists,  he  is 
called  an  exploiter. 

If,  as  Lenine  says,  "the  least  little  wavering"  of  the 
peasantry  spells  the  end  of  Sovietism,  then  certainly 
its  end  is  not  far  off.  For  the  peasant  has  refused  to 
plant  the  surplus,  and  his  methods  have  merely  changed 
from  an  active  to  the  more  effective  passive  resistance. 

"Up  to  April  1, 1919,  the  Military  Supply  Bureau 
(from  Petrograd  alone)  sent  255  military  requisi- 
tioning detachments  to  various  provinces."  (The 
"Northern  Commune"  No.  73,  September  4,  1919.) 
"According  to  the  report  presented  to  the  Moscow 
Conference  of  Soviets,  30,000  men  had  been  sent  in 
the  course  of  a  short  period,  but  the  majority  of  them 
were  incapable  of  performing  their  task,  while  others 
were  themselves  gross  speculators. ' '  ( The  ' '  Moscow 
Pravda,"  No.  105,  July  4,  1919.)  "An  atmosphere 
of  aggression,  espionage  and  bloody  strife  permeated 
the  villages,  coupled  with  an  uncertainty  as  to  the 
results  of  agricultural  labor.  The  situation  is  best 
illustrated  by  the  fact  that  out  of  the  36,500  men, 
forming  the  total  of  the  food  requisitioning  detach- 


SOVIETISM  AND  THE  BOLSHEVIKI      105 

ments  during  the  period  from  June  to  December, 
1918,  7,309,  i.  e.,  20  per  cent.,  wefe  killed  and  wound- 
ed by  the  peasants  while  collecting  the  grain." 
("Izvestia"  of  the  Food  Commissariat  for  Decem- 
ber, 1918.) 

The  results  were  what  might  have  been  expected. 

The  peasants,  deprived  of  the  possibility  of  disposing 
of  their  grain,  and  compelled  to  sell  it  at  prices  out  of 
all  proportion  to  those  of  other  commodities  they  stood 
in  need  of,  listened  suspiciously  to  any  new  declaration 
on  the  part  of  the  Bolsheviks,  especially  as  in  practice 
everything  remained  unchanged.  As,  hitherto,  their  en- 
deavors to  oppose  requisitions  by  force  had  failed  they 
had  recourse  to  the  only  means  of  self-defence  in  their 
power;  they  curtailed  their  crop  area,  sowing  barely 
enough  to  satisfy  their  own  needs.  According  to  the 
data  of  the  People's  Commissariat  of  Agriculture,  the 
crop  area  in  twenty-eight  provinces  of  Soviet  Russia 
had  decreased  by  five  million  dessiatines  (13,500,000 
acres),  the  corresponding  shortage  of  grain  and  forage 
being  3,035,714  tons  (the  "Economic  Life,"  No.  54, 
1919).  The  Tambov  province,  which  habitually  yielded 
357,124  tons  of  surplus  grain,  now  passed  into  the  cate- 
gory of  famine-stricken  provinces  ("Izvestia"  of  the 
General  Executive  Committee,  No.  417).  According  to 
non-Bolshevist  information  the  crop  area  curtailed  was 
considerably  larger. 

The  Bolsheviks  themselves  entertained  a  very  gloomy 
view  of  the  future.  A  correspondent  from  Samara 
wrote  in  the  Bolshevik  press:  "The  political  side  of 
this  year's  grain  campaign  (1919-1920)  will  be  difficult 
and  extremely  complicated.  The  entire  peasantry  is 
united  in  staunchly  defending  its  interests."    After  a 


106  SOVIETISM 

tour  through  the  corn-producing  regions  Svidersky,  a 
member  of  the  People's  Economic  Council,  reported: 
j"In  spite  of  corn  being  more  plentiful  this  year,  the  new 
corn  campaign  should  be  considered  more  complicated 
politically  than  it  was  last  year;  this  is  also  enhanced 
by  the  altered  correlation  of  forces  in  the  village  itself." 

What  concrete  benefit  can  the  Soviets  confer  upon  the 
peasants — even  if  they  are  in  power  for  years  to  come — 
to  compensate  for  the  hostility  they  have  created  ?  What 
mere  propaganda  can  atone  for  this  systematic  plunder- 
ing and  violence  of  the  Red  Armies  in  the  villages? 

People  who  have  not  seen  a  dictatorship  at  work  in 
a  backward  country  argue  that  if  the  peasants  do  not 
revolt  this  indicates  that  they  passively  accept  the  ex- 
isting regime.  There  is  no  foundation  whatever  for 
such  a  view. 

In  spite  of  almost  universal  passive  resistance,  utiliz- 
ing such  armies  as  they  have,  35,000  Soviet  soldiers  with 
machine  guns,  were  able  to  overcome  a  resistance  of 
35,000,000  peasants  poorly  armed  and  scattered  through- 
out 50,000  villages;  with  little,  if  no  inter-eemmunica- 
tion. 

The  peasants  are  revolting  as  well  as  they  are  able — 
by  passive  resistance  and  the  refusal  to  plant ' '  surplus ' ' 
crops. 

Bolshevism  vs.  Agriculture. — The  latest  and  most 
vigorous  defender  of  the  Soviets'  agricultural  policy  is 
Lincoln  Eyre  of  The  New  York  World.  Not  the  Bolshe- 
viki  themselves  make  more  extraordinary  claims  for  Bol- 
shevism in  rural  regions.  The  Bolshevist  revolution 
"has  bettered  the  lot  of  the  Russian  peasant,  mentally, 
morally,  and  materially,  to  an  enormous  degree."  He 
is  growing  ' '  rich  and  fat. ' '    His  last  harvest,  helped  by 


SOVIETISM  AND  THE  BOLSHEVIKI      107 

a  favorable  year,  according  to  all  accounts,  "surpassed 
by  fully  25  per  cent,  the  pre-war  average." 

Eyre  speaks  of  his  intimate  and  constant  contact  with 
Bolshevist  authorities,  whom  he  frequently  quotes,  and 
we  need  not  doubt — however  amazing  it  may  seem — that 
these  were  indeed  their  claims,  and  that  he  believed 
them.  We  have  already  quoted  sufficient  Bolshevist  ma- 
terial to  show  that  they  boldly  and  completely  reverse 
the  truth — according  even  to  their  own  evidence. 
Eyre  has  been  so  far  deceived  as  to  give  the  Bolsheviki 
credit  for  abolishing  vodka,  which  all  the  world  knows 
was  carried  out  years  previously  by  the  Czar !  He  speaks 
of  the  priests'  influence  being  curtailed  by  the  Soviets 
"almost  to  nothing" — when  the  author  can  personally 
testify  by  visits  to  scores  of  villages  all  over  Russia 
thirteen  and  fourteen  years  ago,  that  this  was  already 
the  case  in  most  of  them.  He  says  the  peasant  now 
owns  his  land  and  suggests  that  he  owes  this  to  the  Bol- 
sheviki. Lenine's  own  figures  show  that  the  peasants 
could  increase  their  previous  holdings  only  some  25  per 
cent,  by  expropriating  all  the  land  not  already  in  the 
hands  of  very  small  proprietors  under  the  Czar.  Eyre 
says  they  got  this  new  land  through  the  Bolshevist  revo- 
lution. As  a  matter  of  fact  they  took  most  of  it  under 
the  Kerensky  regime  and  he  guaranteed  that  they  should 
have  all  under  the  constitutional  assembly — which  actu- 
ally gathered  at  the  time  he  promised  and  was  almost 
unanimous  for  this  land  program. 

Eyre  says,  "Russian  peasants,  although  accustomed 
from  ancient  times  to  work  collectively,  have  always 
clung  tenaciously  to  the  principle  of  private  owner- 
ship." As  a  matter  of  fact  Russian  peasants,  although 
accustomed  from  ancient  times  to  communal  ownership, 


108  SOVIETISM 

have  always  clung  tenaciously  to  the  principle  of  work- 
ing individually  in  their  agriculture — a  truth  to  which 
I  can  attest  from  two  summers  in  many  parts  of  rural 
Russia — a  truth  which  is  proved  by  all  authorities,  from 
Lenine  and  the  Liberals  to  the  Reactionaries. 

I  quote  Eyre  at  some  length,  not  because  he  is  excep- 
tionally extreme,  but  because  his  statements  are  typical 
of  the  entire  pro-Bolshevist  propaganda  for  foreign  con- 
sumption (such  statements  would  be  futile  for  Russia). 
He  goes  so  far  as  to  attack  the  peasants  because  they 
do  not  feel  the  faintest  gratitude  to  the  Bolshevists,  and 
because  they  are  anti-Bolshevist,  while  the  pro-Bolshe- 
vists among  them  he  calls  ' '  unusually  progressive. ' '  He 
expresses  no  indignation,  on  the  other  hand,  at  the 
Bolshevist  attitude  towards  the  peasant,  which  he  sum- 
marizes in  the  following  paragraph: 

"The  Bolsheviks  believe,  however,  that  they  can 
'show  him'  where  his  best  interests  lie,  just  as  soon 
as  their  factories  are  able  to  turn  out  agricultural 
machinery  and  fertilizer,  etc.  Their  scheme  is  to 
give  the  Sovietist  farms  and  rural  communes  all 
the  manufactured  products  they  require  and  give 
nothing  or  virtually  nothing  to  individualistic 
farmers.  They  figure  that  this  is  bound  to  place 
communistic  land  cultivation  on  a  much  more  pros- 
perous level  than  individualistic  endeavor. 

"The  solitary  plowman,  trying  to  squeeze  riches 
for  himself  out  of  his  patch  of  land,  would  soon 
comprehend,  they  argue,  the  error  of  his  ways  once 
he  were  confronted  with  the  visible  evidence  of  the 
greater  prosperity  of  his  communist  neighbors." 

Eyre,  who  certainly  cannot  be  suspected  of  hostility 
to  the  Soviets,  then  proceeds  to  relate  some  of  the  de- 
tails of  their  policy.     His  tendency  to  put  them  in  a 


SOVIETISM  AND  THE  BOLSHEVIKI     109 

favorable  light  does  not  really  obscure  the  essential 
facts.    We  read : 

"For  the  present  the  Soviet  Government  is  treat- 
ing the  peasants  tenderly  but  firmly.  It  has  been 
drummed  in  upon  their  consciousness  that,  however 
repugnant  the  idea  may  be  to  them,  they  cannot 
escape  turning  into  the  state  a  certain  fixed  amount 
of  their  product  and  livestock  at  a  price  specified  by 
the  Soviets.  The  grain  tithe  varies  from  eleven 
pounds  per  head  in  the  northern  sections  to  fifteen 
in  the  south,  where  the  yield  is  more  abundant. 
Potatoes  are  collected  in  about  the  same  proportion. 
These  percentages  are  only  about  a  third  of  the  total 
that  can  be  produced.  In  order  to  insure  a  mini- 
mum of  production,  the  regional  authorities  notify 
each  township  how  much  grain  it  will  be  called  upon 
to  supply  by  a  certain  specified  date,  the  estimate 
being  based  on  the  township's  average  harvest  in 
past  years.  Collections  are  usually  made  three  times 
a  year.  Products  such  as  milk,  butter,  and  eggs  are 
bought  in  the  same  fashion,  but  at  weekly  intervals. 
On  the  average,  10  per  cent,  of  the  peasant-owned 
horses,  cattle,  and  other  animals  have  been  requisi- 
tioned."    (My  italics.) 

' '  Tenderly  but  firmly. ' '  This  is  the  way  we  handle  un- 
ruly children,  criminals,  or  animals.  No  doubt  it  is  the 
way  the  better  and  more  intelligent  Bolshevists  try  to 
handle  their  peasant  subjects  (90  per  cent,  of  the  pop- 
ulation) .  They  take  only  about  a  third  of  the  crops  that 
can  be  produced.  Surely  a  third  is  a  good  deal  from  a 
woefully  and  incredibly  backward  agriculture!  And 
about  a  third  of  what  can  be  produced  would  surely 
prove  oftentimes  the  larger  part  of  what  is  produced. 
The  last  word  quoted,  "requisitioned"  surely  fits  this 
proceeding  more  accurately  than  the  word  "bought." 

But  we  are  only  in  the  middle  of  the  story.     Eyre 


110  SOVIETISM 

continues  to  minimize  the  peasants'  compulsory  "sac- 
rifices," but  he  does  give  us  the  list.     He  says: 

"The  only  other  sacrifice  imposed  upon  the  rural 
populations  is  labor  duty,  which  consists  chiefly  in 
devoting  a  certain  number  of  hours  to  cleaning  the 
snow  off  the  railroads.  Carting  wood  is  also  obliga- 
tory, but  since  one  can  make  900  rubles  by  hauling  a 
single  load  five  miles  or  so  it  is  not  a  very  self-sacri- 
ficing obligation."     (My  italics.) 

This  last  remark  may  be  questioned.  What  is  a  Bol- 
shevist ruble? 

Eyre  even  gives  a  glimpse  of  the  politics  of  a  village — 
which  all  information  shows  to  be  typical.  The  village 
government  was  not  Communist,  "as  the  village  is  con- 
trolled by  the  Volost  or  township  soviet  which,  while 
usually  not  possessing  a  Communist  majority,  always 
elects  Communists  to  executive  offices,  is  in  fact  a  cog 
in  the  Bolshevik  machine." 

Eyre  makes  much  of  the  fact  that  the  peasants,  having 
been  cowed  into  submission,  now  no  longer  revolt.  He 
says: 

"Despite  much  grumbling,  however,  the  country 
folk  on  the  whole  get  along  on  amicable  enough 
terms  with  their  Bolshevik  rulers.  Sensing  rather 
than  understanding  the  Communist  party's  might 
they  obey  the  Soviet's  commands  unquestioningly. 
The  days  when  the  Council  of  the  People 's  Commis- 
saries had  to  take  corn  from  the  farmers  at  the 
point  of  the  bayonet  have  passed,  though  the  bay- 
onet is  still  kept  sharp  lest  it  should  be  required 
again.  In  other  words,  there  are  still  in  existence 
special  agricultural  detachments  of  the  Red  Army 
charged  with  the  task  of  assuring  the  prompt  rendi- 
tion of  the  grain  demanded  by  the  state.  Soldiers 
composing  these  units  have  a  fairly  easy  time  of  it 
nowadays,  however." 


SOVIETISM  AND  THE  BOLSHEVIKI     111 

Yet  Eyre  favors  the  Bolshevists  as  against  the  pea- 
sants, as  already  indicated,  and  with  them  (as  against 
the  peasants)  throws  the  blame  on  the  Entente  blockade 
and  gives  the  Bolshevists  the  praise!  He  says  of  the 
peasants : 

"Even  more  disturbing  to  them  than  the  task  of 
farming  machines  is  the  peasant's  shortage  of  fer- 
tilizer. It  is  one  of  their  chief  causes  of  complaint 
against  the  Government — for  understanding  noth- 
ing of  the  blockade,  they  blame  the  Government  for 
all  their  troubles,  while  cunningly  withholding 
praise  for  such  success  or  benefits  as  the  Soviet 
regime  may  have  brought  them."    (My  italics.) 

Surely  Lenine  never  more  accurately  estimated  in 
advance  the  probable  course  of  any  of  his  hand-picked 
visiting  correspondents. 

Communism  to  be  Forced  in  Agriculture  by  Partial 
Confiscation  of  Crops  under  the  Name  of  Taxes. — Le- 
nine 's  official  American  organ,  "Soviet  Russia,"  on 
February  28,  1920,  contained  the  following  illuminat- 
ing item: 

1 '  Beginning  with  November,  1918,  to  this  old  sys- 
tem there  were  added  on  two  taxes  of  a  purely  re- 
volutionary character  which  stand  out  apart  within 
the  partly  outgrown  system  'taxes  in  kind'  (decree 
of  October  30,  1918),  and  'extraordinary  taxes' 
(November  2,  1918). 

"Both  decrees  have  been  described  as  follows  by 
Comrade  Krestinsky,  Commissary  of  the  Finance, 
at  the  May  session  of  the  financial  sub-divisions: 

' '  '  These  are  decrees  of  a  different  order,  the  only 
thing  they  have  in  common  is  that  they  both  bear 
a  class  character  and  that  each  provides  for  the  tax 
to  increase  in  direct  proportion  with  the  amount  of 
property  which  the  taxpayer  possesses,  that  the  poor 


112  SOYIETISM 

are  completely  free  from  both  taxes,  and  the  lower 
middle  class  pays  them  in  a  smaller  proportion.' 

1 '  The  extraordinary  tax  aims  at  the  savings  which 
remained  in  the  hands  of  the  urban  and  larger  rural 
bourgeoisie,  from  former  times.  Insofar  as  it  is 
directed  at  non-labor  savings  it  cannot  be  levied 
more  than  once.  As  regards  the  taxes  in  kind,  bor- 
rowing Comrade  Krestinsky's  expression,  'it  will 
remain  in  force  during  the  period  of  transition  to 
the  Communist  order  until  the  village  will  from 
practical  experience  realize  the  advantage  of  rural 
economy  on  a  large  scale  compared  with  the  small 
farming  estate,  and  will  of  its  own  accord,  without 
compulsion,  en  masse  adopt  the  communist  method 
of  land  cultivation. ' 

1 '  Thus  the  tax  in  kind  is  a  link  binding  politically 
the  Communist  socialized  urban  economy  and  the  in- 
dependent individual  petty  agricultural  producers. 

"Such  are  the  two  'direct'  revolutionary  taxes  of 
the  latest  period." 

Krestinsky's  claim  that  this  intended  transition  to 
agricultural  communism  is  not  to  be  compulsory  will 
deceive  no  one.  He  himself  classes  it  with  the  other 
revolutionary  tax  which  is  to  destroy  the  larger  bour- 
geois of  both  town  and  country  so  completely  that  it  can 
be  levied  only  once.  This  policy,  aimed  against  the 
majority  of  the  population,  could  not  be  proposed  un- 
less the  present  minority  dictatorship  were  intended  to 
(be  lasting.  In  the  meanwhile,  in  order  to  obtain  the 
means  to  maintain  the  subjection  of  the  small  capitalist 
peasantry,  a  large  part  of  Russia's  patrimony  of  natural 
resources  are  offered  to  foreign  capitalists.  Doubtless 
revolutions  are  hoped  for  to  cancel  this  debt — but  it  can- 
not be  known  that  these  revolutions  will  occur. 


CHAPTER  IX 
ARE  THE  BOLSHEVIKI  REFORMING? 

"If  the  Bolshevists  want  to  stay  in  power,  circum- 
stances will  force  them  to  be  practical  and  to  give  up 
their  theories."  Here  is  a  widely  prevalent  view.  On 
the  surface  and  without  analysis  several  extremely  im- 
portant facts  seem  to  bear  this  opinion  out.  (1)  The 
Bolshevists  have  abandoned  their  alleged  economic  prin- 
ciple, communism.  (2)  They  have  thrown  over  their 
alleged  political  principle,  Sovietism.  (3)  They  have 
completely  reversed  their  labor  control  of  industry  by 
introducing  compulsory  labor.  (4)  They  have  replaced 
ultra-pacifism  by  aggressive  militarism  and  imperialism. 

All  very  true  and  very  important  and  illuminating 
too.  But — each  one  of  the  policies  now  abandoned  had 
been  taken  up  by  the  Bolsheviki  only  as  an  after- 
thought. Their  revolution  was  at  first  far  more  success- 
ful than  they  had  dreamed  it  could  be — and  their  heads 
were  turned.  Before  the  revolution  they  were  neither 
pacifists,  syndicalists,  Sovietists,  nor  communists.  In 
fact  they  never  became  pacifists  for  a  moment,  breathing 
always  both  civil  war  and  a  revolutionary  international 
war  when  the  time  would  be  ripe.  The  State  Socialism 
they  are  now  returning  to  was  the  natural  industrial 
form  they  expected  their  highly  centralized  revolution- 
ary organization  to  take  when  it  captured  the  govern- 
ment.    The  alternative  experiment   (labor  control  of 

113 


114  SOVIETISM 

industry)  which  they  have  now  discarded  was  but  an 
interlude — a  concession  to  popular  demand,  temporarily 
granted  in  order  to  popularize  the  revolution.  As  to 
Sovietism  it  was  scarcely  dreamed  of  before  March,  1917, 
when  its  germ  appeared  in  the  Kerensky  revolution,  nor 
was  it  finally  adopted  by  the  Bolsheviki  until  February, 
1918,  when  Lenine  saw  he  could  not  coerce  the  Consti- 
tutional Assembly.  The  Bolshevik  revolution  of  No- 
vember, 1917,  was  a  Bolshevik  Party  revolution;  the 
Bolsheviki  have  never  relinquished  their  hold  either  of 
governmental  power  or  of  the  Soviets  for  a  moment ;  and 
it  is  no  real  change  that  the  Soviets  have  visibly  become 
a  mere  empty  form  to-day. 

So  also  with  communism.  Until  their  final  abandon- 
ment of  democracy  in  February,  1918,  the  Bolsheviki 
had  claimed  to  be  Socialists;  they  said  they  stood  not 
for  equal  incomes  and  division  of  all  possessions,  but 
for  the  nationalization  of  capital.  They  are  now  say- 
ing this  again. 

As  a  matter  of  fact  they  stand  now  where  they  have 
always  stood  (in  practice) — they  are  for  any  political 
and  economic  institutions  that  will  keep  them  in  power. 
They  are  reversing  their  policies  from  time  to  time,  but 
they  are  not  reforming.  They  are  and  must  remain 
(at  the  bottom)  what  they  have  always  been.  They 
got  their  power  and  held  it  as  propagandists  and  fighters, 
who  could  organize  the  illiterate,  desperate  and  helpless 
mass.  By  a  process  of  natural  and  artificial  selection 
the  Bolshevist  Party  was  built  up  of  persons  with  gifts 
for  this  kind  of  work.  It  cannot  change  its  own  nature. 
The  administration  of  government  and  industry  is  en- 
tirely beyond  its  ken  and  power.  The  fever  of  fighting 
and  propaganda  now  going  on  completely  fulfills  the 


SOVIETISM  AND  THE  BOLSHEVIKI      115 

wildest  dreams  and  the  entire  life-object  of  ninety-nine 
Bolsheviki  out  of  one  hundred.  They  can  only  become 
constructively  practical  as  they  abandon  their  power 
to  another  kind  of  men — the  very  kind  which,  in  all 
classes  (especially  among  peasants  and  workingmen), 
they  have  excluded  from  their  party  and  made  their 
worst  enemies. 

Propaganda  and  war  must  remain  the  chief  activity 
of  the  Bolshevist  Party  and  their  Soviets.  Peace  at  home 
or  abroad  can  only  be  a  truce — as  all  Bolshevist  publi- 
cations for  home  consumption — or  for  foreign  revolu- 
tionary allies — never  cease  to  declare.  Civil  war  for 
perhaps  a  decade  or  a  generation,  world-revolution  and 
national  wars  against  capital,  this  is  the  beginning  and 
end  of  the  program  "for  the  present  period,"  as  Le- 
nine  himself  says. 

About  a  year  ago  Lenine  grandiloquently  announced 
to  the  world  a  new  policy,  he  was  going  to  employ  freely 
non-Bolshevik  industrial  administrators  and  experts. 
And  because  he  faced  in  the  right  direction,  it  was  at 
once  assumed  by  Soviet  sympathizers  everywhere  that  he 
was  going  to  equal  if  not  surpass  other  countries !  Sev- 
eral considerations  were  forgotten.  If  this  is  the  right 
road  then  the  previous  policy — followed  during  the  first 
year  and  a  half  of  Bolshevist  rule — was  wrong,  as  Lenine 
himself  confessed.  The  evil  already  done  in  killing  off 
and  driving  out  of  the  country  the  industrial  brains  of 
Russia  cannot  be  repaired  in  a  single  year  or  perhaps 
in  a  generation.  Even  the  physical  decay  and  destruc- 
tion of  industry  and  plunder  of  the  factories  will  take 
years  to  repair.  And  after  the  Soviets  had  finally  brought 
industry  to  where  it  was  when  they  began  to  destroy  it, 
the  new  and  permanent  handicaps  of  Sovietism  would 


116  SOVIETISM 

continue  to  hold  it  back.  Vast  sums  must  go  from  a 
starving  people  for  propaganda,  to  subsidize  foreign  re- 
volutionists, to  send  armies  to  help  revolutions  nearby. 
And  the  Bolshevist  bureaucracy — which  Lenine's  new 
policy  confesses  to  be  all  but  useless  for  industrial  or 
constructive  purposes — must  be  paid,  fed,  and  (even 
worse)  given  a  large  amount  of  power,  especially  in  the 
factories  and  among  the  workmen,  upon  whom  the  Bol- 
sheviki  aim  to  rest  their  whole  regime.  Leading  Bolshe- 
vists themselves  complain  (see  above)  that  this  bureau- 
cracy of  agitators  already  numbers  several  hundred  thou- 
sand. To  justify  their  existence  they  will  keep  busy — 
and  above  all  in  the  factories.  Even  an  approach  to 
industrial  efficiency  will  remain  impossible  with  such 
handicaps. 

Lenine  may  hire  a  few  constructive  experts.  In  pro- 
portion as  they  oust  the  Bolsheviki — few  of  whom  ever 
constructed  anything — the  regime  would  change.  In 
proportion  as  they  serve  the  Bolsheviki  it  remains  the 
same.  The  Bolsheviki  know  this,  and  take  pains  that 
their  creatures  are  not  numerous  enough  thus  to  oust 
them  one  by  one — without  a  revolutionary  struggle. 
The  destruction  of  the  skilled  and  expert  has  been  rapid, 
wholesale,  and  thorough.  Their  resurrection  must  be 
slow. 

The  great  reversals  of  policy  prove,  further,  that  the 
Bolsheviki  secured  power  by  false  pretences.  They  got 
the  active  support  of  a  considerable  part  of  the  masses 
of  the  towns  by  promising  bread,  peace,  and  liberty, 
land  for  the  peasants,  the  election  of  officers  by  soldiers, 
the  control  of  the  factories  by  the  workers,  "all  power 
to  the  Soviets,  etc."  Large  sections  of  the  working- 
men  were  dazzled  by  the  program.     Though  they  did 


SOVIETISM  AND  THE  BOLSHEVIKI      117 

not  believe  in  or  vote  for  the  Bolsheviki  they  could  not 
refuse  to  listen  to  such  promises  or  to  hope  that  they 
would  be  carried  out.  Indeed  the  Bolshevists'  program 
was  simply  constructed,  they  merely  offered  the  masses 
everything  they  wanted — using  the  exact  promises  and 
the  very  words  of  the  German  propagandists  who  were 
also  working  to  overthrow  Kerensky's  democratic  regime. 
It  was  a  warfare  of  fanaticism  and  these  promises  were 
nothing  but  the  most  available  psychological  weapons 
with  which  to  rally  an  ignorant  population. 

The  chief  Bolshevik  weapons  were  the  bayonets  of 
the  Cronstadt  sailors  and  the  Red  Guard,  but  their 
propaganda  allowed  them  to  consolidate  their  power. 
Their  promises  were  not  kept,  some  of  them  because 
they  were  impossible  and  therefore  either  dishonest  or 
irresponsible  from  the  beginning.  For  example,  only 
a  fraction  of  the  land  offered  was  in  existence  (see 
above).  And  now  comes  the  great  reversal:  such  power 
as  the  Soviets  ever  enjoyed  is  taken  away.  Czarist 
military  discipline  is  introduced;  instead  of  peace  the 
revolutionary-imperialism  of  the  Red  Army  chiefs;  in- 
stead of  labor  sovereign,  labor  enslaved.  The  new  pol- 
icies may  or  may  not  be  better  than  the  old,  they  con- 
stitute a  complete  abandonment  of  the  promises  by  which 
the  Bolshevists  built  up  their  power.  Long  ago  the 
peasants  were  undeceived.  Now  has  come  the  turn  of 
the  workingmen. 

Thus  the  great  and  spectacular  reversals  of  policy, 
which  the  conservative  world  has  welcomed  as  a  return 
to  common  sense,  show  rather  that  the  Bolsheviki  are 
discarding  their  opportunistic  concessions  to  anarchy 
and  returning  to  their  earlier  plans  for  a  lasting  party 
dictatorship.    They  prove,  second,  that  the  new  Bolshe- 


118  SOVIETISM 

vist  program  has  not  had  even  that  limited  popular  sup- 
port enjoyed  by  the  old.  And  finally  they  certainly  dem- 
onstrate that  a  party  which  cannot  be  trusted  by  its 
own  people  can  scarcely  be  trusted  by  the  foreign  na- 
tions which — up  to  this  very  moment — it  has  regarded 
as  enemies. 


PART  II 
THE  PRO-BOLSHEVISTS 


CHAPTER  X 

"AUTHORITIES"  ON  BOLSHEVISM 

Lenine's  regime  openly  defends  its  policy  of  allow- 
ing none  but  sure  friends  to  enter  Soviet  Russia  or  to 
remain  there.  Hence  all  correspondents  and  others 
who  have  been  permitted  to  get  a  glimpse  of  the  country 
under  his  tutelage  without  exception  have  been  reliably 
pro-Bolshevist  to  begin  with — or  else  gave  complete  satis- 
faction to  Lenine  and  his  agents  upon  examination  in 
Russia.  And,  in  every  instance,  Lenine's  judgment  has 
been  justified  by  the  event.  He  has  made  no  mistake, 
from  Arthur  Ransome  and  Philips  Price  to  Professor 
Goode,  Isaac  Don  Levine,  and  Lincoln  Eyre. 

The  reliable  witnesses  are  those  Lenine  did  not  will- 
ingly permit  to  leave  the  country,  but  who  left  without 
his  permission.  There  is  nothing  new  about  this  policy. 
It  was  successfully  followed  by  Germany  all  through 
the  war;  only  being  better  organized  not  so  many  got 
through  the  German  net. 

Tens  of  thousands  of  Russian  Socialist  workingmen 
and  peasants  as  well  as  intellectuals  have  escaped.  I  do 
not  refer  to  aristocrats  or  to  other  supporters  of  Czarism, 
but  to  those  elements  who  died  by  the  hundred  thousand 
fighting  against  Czarism  and  for  democracy  and  who 
finally  overthrew  the  old  regime  (the  Bolsheviki,  their 
leaders  safe  refugees  in  other  countries,  contributed 
insignificantly  to  this  revolution).    These  ultra-progres- 

121 


122  SOVIETISM 

sive  and  Socialistic  democrats  swarm  in  Finland,  Po- 
land, the  Baltic  provinces,  Germany,  Austria,  and  a 
dozen  other  bordering  countries.  There  is  no  ques- 
tion as  to  the  nature  of  Sovietism  in  Eastern  Europe — 
where  these  people  dwell.  It  is  only  in  England,  France 
and  America,  where  there  are  relatively  few  of  these 
witnesses  in  the  place  of  tens  of  thousands,  where  any 
doubt  remains  in  the  public  mind.  There  are  no 
"liberals"  in  near-by  countries  so  indifferent  to  Russia's 
ills,  so  perverted  as  to  defend  Sovietism.  They  take  it 
seriously,  as  would  America  and  England  if  the  menace 
were  as  near  home. 

A  Summary  of  the  Amazing  Claims  of  the  Soviets. — 
Following  Philips  Price  and  Arthur  Ransome,  the  Man- 
chester Guardian  sent  to  Russia  Prof.  William  T.  Goode, 
who  was  received  with  open  arms  by  Lenine.  Goode 
has  made  the  following  typical  summary  of  the  claims 
of  Bolshevism — which  he  supports.    He  says: 

1.  It  has  tackled  the  question  of  the  illiteracy  and 
ignorance  of  the  masses  with  a  certain  measure  of  suc- 
cess in  the  present  and  the  promise  of  more  in  the  future. 

2.  It  has  preserved  and  extended  the  art  galleries 
and  brought  them  to  the  comprehension  and  enjoyment 
of  the  workers. 

3.  It  maintains  theaters,  opera,  ballet  in  full  work 
as  before. 

4.  It  provides  concerts  in  the  open  air  and  in  halls; 
it  caters  for  the  tastes  of  children  on  the  boulevards 
and  in  special  theaters. 

5.  It  has  provided,  for  the  first  time  in  Russia,  uni- 
versal tolerance  for  religions. 

6.  It  has  endowed  motherhood  and  provided  for  the 
guarding  of  infant  life. 


THE  PRO-BOLSHEVISTS  123 

7.  It  brings  medical  assistance  to  every  one. 

8.  It  has  put  the  worker  on  a  decent  economic  foot- 
ing, man  or  woman. 

9.  So  far  as  it  has  been  possible,  already  it  has  im- 
proved his  housing  and  will  continue  the  work  when  the 
Allies  permit. 

10.  It  has  kept  3,000  factories  working  and  supplied 
in  what  measure  it  cam,  the  needs  of  the  people.  (My 
italics.) 

11.  It  has  improved  a  transport  system  broken  down 
by  barbarous  use  in  war  time  and  made  it  answer  the 
desperate  needs  of  locomotion,  food  and  military  ser- 
vice. 

12.  It  has  kept  the  great  towns  free  from  epidemics. 

Most  of  these  claims  are  contradicted  by  Soviet  ad- 
missions as  to  the  real  facts,  to  be  found  in  this  volume. 
Some  of  them  also  exhibit  the  extraordinary  logic  of  the 
Soviet  propaganda.  Claims  one,  nine  and  ten  admit 
that  not  much  has  been  accomplished,  but  go  on  to  state 
what  the  Bolsheviki  will  do,  as  having  the  same  weight 
as  if  they  had  already  done  it,  also  suggesting  that 
nobody  could  have  done  better  (for  example,  as  to  hous- 
ing) .  Further  we  are  calmly  asked  to  believe  that  Bol- 
shevik shortcomings  are  not  due  to  the  Bolsheviki  but 
to  their  enemies — an  extraordinary  statement  in  the 
midst  of  an  argument  intended  to  provide  the  facts  to 
prove  this  very  claim. 

Claims  six,  seven  and  eight  have  the  same  defect  in 
an  even  higher  degree.  The  meaning  is  clearly  not  that 
the  Soviets  have  accomplished  these  things,  which  it 
would  take  advanced  rich  and  orderly  countries  years  to 
perform,  but  merely  that  they  say  they  will  accomplish 
them!    The  first  demand  of  the  Soviets  in  the  "raise 


124  SOVIETISM 

the  blockade' '  agitation,  for  instance,  has  been  for  at 
least  a  limited  supply  of  the  most  urgently  useful 
medical  materials — which  are  lacking.  The  present  So- 
viet intention — or  expressed  intention — "to  bring  med- 
ical aid  to  everyone"  is  taken  as  wholly  equivalent  to 
bringing  that  aid!  So  with  nearly  all  the  other  Soviet 
1 '  achievements. ' ' 

Points  two,  three  and  four  avoid  the  real  questions — 
how  much  and  how  many  ?  Theaters  and  concerts  exist, 
but  how  much  service  do  they  do  in  Soviet  Russia  com- 
pared to  other  countries  or  to  the  conditions  under  Ke- 
rensky  or  before  the  war?  To  what  degree  have  the 
illiterate  workers  (in  the  midst  of  suffering  and  civil 
war)  been  educated  in  the  appreciation  of  the  fine  arts? 

Claims  five,  eleven  and  twelve  flatly  and  completely 
contradict  the  Bolshevists'  own  evidence,  as  the  present 
volume  demonstrates. 

Thus  not  one  of  these  claims  comes  to  anything.  All 
are  either  against  Bolshevik  testimony,  avoid  the  real 
issue,  or  take  Soviet  promises  for  accomplished  fact. 
This  is  typical  of  the  entire  propaganda,  none  of  which 
is  more  able  and  plausible  than  that  put  forth  by  Pro- 
fessor Goode.  Endlessly  repeated,  with  a  thousand 
minor  variations  and  with  a  score  of  different  signatures, 
it  has  made  a  deep  impression  not  only  on  all  those 
with  ' '  the  will  to  believe, ' '  but  also  upon  the  busy  world 
generally  which  has  time  neither  to  check  such  state- 
ments by  known  facts  and  credible  witnesses,  nor  to 
examine  them  for  inherent  improbability. 


CHAPTER  XI 

THE    ORIGIN    OF    PRO-BOLSHEVISM    IN 
SMOLNY  INSTITUTE 

Thousands,  if  not  millions,  of  persons  have  come  to 
misplace  their  confidence,  temporarily  no  doubt,  in  cer- 
tain self -constituted  "  authorities"  on  the  Russian  situa- 
tion, individuals  almost  without  exception  who  have 
gained  their  sole  knowledge  of  Russia  from  a  few  months, 
weeks  or  days  spent  in  that  country  without  any  previ- 
ous knowledge  or  preparation  or  any  special  equipment 
for  disentangling  the  fundamental  facts,  usually  even 
without  a  knowledge  of  the  Russian  language.  Almost 
without  exception  these  persons  have  spent  most  of  their 
visit  in  Russia  under  the  Bolshevik  dictatorship  and 
were  dependent  on  the  Bolsheviki  not  only  for  informa- 
tion but  for  the  privilege  of  entering  the  country,  or 
staying  there,  of  moving  from  place  to  place,  of  eating, 
of  being  protected  from  Red  Guards,  of  having  facilities 
needed  to  accomplish  any  practical  investigation  what- 
ever under  disturbed  conditions  and  in  a  limited  space 
of  time. 

By  excluding  every  new  visitor  of  whose  sympathies 
they  were  not  certain  in  advance,  by  professional  fa- 
vors, by  every  means  of  misinformation,  the  Bolsheviki 
could  be  sure  of  the  most  favorable  reports  and  even  of 
occasional  conversions.  Once  having  converted  two  or 
three  of  these  "nonpartisan"  observers,   it  was  still 

125 


126  SOVIETISM 

easier  with  their  help  to  influence  others,  until  certain 
stories  came  to  be  repeated  and  were  eventually  accepted 
by  ever-widening  circles. 

To  every  one  of  these  pro-Bolshevist  witnesses  stamped 
with  the  O.  K.  of  Lenine  there  are  to  be  found  a  hun- 
dred on  the  other  side,  persons  who  know  the  language 
and  have  lived  for  years  in  Russia,  persons  familiar  with 
Russian  history  and  politics  and  representing  every  na- 
tion from  Russia  to  America,  and  every  social  class. 
Especially  competent  are  those  Russian  socialists  and 
revolutionists  who  all  their  lifetime  have  known  the 
Russian  masses,  workers  and  peasants,  and  have  been 
acquainted  with  the  Russian  Bolsheviki  for  the  last 
quarter  century,  also  the  labor  leaders  from  neighbor- 
ing countries  who  have  followed  Russian  affairs  from 
the  labor  and  revolutionary  point  of  view  for  many 
years,  have  known  Trotzky  and  Lenine  and  in  many 
cases  have  visited  Russia  since  the  Revolution — such  as 
Albert  Thomas  of  France,  Vandervelde  of  Belgium, 
Branting  of  Sweden,  Bauer  of  Austria,  and  Henderson 
of  England — every  one  of  them  Cabinet  Ministers  dur- 
ing the  war.  To  these  may  be  added  Kautsky  of  Ger- 
many, recognized  as  the  greatest  living  Marxian,  a  life- 
long student  of  Russia  and  advocate  of  Russian  revolu- 
tion. But  the  misinformed  part  of  the  public  does  not 
know  these  men ;  it  does  know  some  favorite  correspond- 
ent, writer,  or  charity  worker  who  has  suddenly  been  set 
up  as  an  authority. 

The  earliest  propagandists  of  pro-Bolshevism  were 
two  English  journalists,  Philips  Price  of  the  Manchester 
Guardian,  and  Arthur  Ransome  of  the  London  Daily 
News,  both  correspondents  of  ultra-pacifist  and  free 
trade  organs,  which  have  favored  the  Bolsheviki  because 


THE  PRO-BOLSHEVISTS  127 

they  were  for  ' '  peace  at  any  price. ' '  These  two  men  did 
not  stop  at  pro-Bolshevism  but  have  become  accepted  as 
out  and  out  Bolsheviki,  their  pamphlets  issued  by  the 
Soviet  agencies  alongside  those  of  Trotzky  and  Lenine. 
Ransome's  official  Bolshevik  account  of  the  Soviets  is 
hailed  by  kindly  and  unsuspecting  American  newspaper 
reviewers  as  "straightforward  reporting,"  "a  plain  un- 
varnished tale,"  and  "one  of  the  most  informative 
authorities" — these  conservative  American  organs  be- 
ing apparently  unaware  that  Ransome  is  regarded  as 
entirely  satisfactory  by  the  Bolsheviki  themselves.  Karl 
Radek,  the  Bolshevik  emissary  sent  to  Germany  to  intro- 
duce Bolshevism  in  that  country,  not  only  recommends 
and  writes  an  introduction  for  Ransome's  pamphlets  on 
the  Soviet  Government,  but  refers  to  him — from  first 
hand  acquaintance — as  having  "passed  from  the  Cadet 
(Liberal)  view  of  Russian  affairs  to  that  of  the  Bolshe- 
viks. ' '  Another  American  review  refers  to  Philips  Price 
as  "competent  and  responsible."  How  competent  and  re- 
sponsible we  may  see  from  his  account  of  the  funda- 
mental Russian  problem,  the  land  question.  Like  most 
pro-Bolshevists  he  represents  two-thirds  of  the  old  Rus^ 
sia  as  having  belonged  to  landlords.  This  is  true  only 
of  the  inaccessible,  uncleared  and  swamp  lands.  Price 
says  that  two-thirds  of  the  old  Russia  had  to  work  for 
the  landlords.  On  the  contrary  Lenine 's  own  statistics 
show  that  more  than  two-thirds  of  the  cultivated  lands 
belonged  to  the  peasants  even  before  the  revolution,  and 
all  the  rest  were  solemnly  pledged  to  them  by  the  Ke- 
rensky  regime.  Price's  account  of  the  Russian  people 
— 90  per  cent,  peasants — is  exactly  this  "competent  and 
responsible." 

Ransome  and  Price,  personally  and  indirectly  influ- 


128  SOVIETISM 

enced  a  dozen  other  correspondents  who  were  later  ad- 
mitted into  Russia  by  the  grace  of  Lenine,  and  every 
one  of  these  has  lived  up  to  Bolshevik  expectations, 
following  the  main  lines  previously  laid  down.  But 
Ransome  undertook  a  further  work  for  the  Soviets — to 
spread  their  influence  beyond  journalistic  circles.  To- 
gether with  certain  English-speaking  Bolsheviki  he  un- 
dertook the  conversion  to  Bolshevism  or  pro-Bolshevism, 
of  the  younger  and  more  susceptible  of  the  few  Amer- 
icans who  remained  in  Russia  after  the  Soviet  overturn, 
for  the  Red  Cross  work  and  Y.  M.  C.  A.  For  every 
such  convert  there  were  a  dozen  who  refused  conversion 
and  repudiated  the  Soviets.  But  enough  were  convinced 
to  form  a  fair  sized  little  group,  together  with  certain 
American  writers  and  radicals,  such  as  John  Reed, 
Albert  Rhys  Williams,  Louise  Bryant  (Reed's  wife), 
and  Bessie  Beatty,  the  two  former  officially  connected 
with  the  Bolshevist  Government.  Lincoln  Steffens,  sent 
to  Russia  along  with  William  C.  Bullitt,  was  also  in 
touch  with  this  group.  Through  contact  with  one  an- 
other in  Russia  these  persons  brought  back  very  similar 
stories  to  America  and  did  all  they  could  to  reinforce 
one  another's  propaganda — and  with  no  small  success. 

America's  Unpaid  Propagandists  for  the  Soviets. — 
A  few  months  ago  Bolshevist  armies  and  Bolshevist 
propaganda  were  threatening  the  world.  At  the  present 
moment  Lenine  (like  the  Kaiser  last  year)  wants  a 
compromise  peace,  a  peace  that  will  leave  him  his  power 
and  give  him  time  to  prepare  to  attack  his  "bourgeois" 
neighbors  under  more  favorable  circumstances — his  ter- 
ritories having  recuperated  economically  while  revolu- 
tions and  wars  are  sown  among  his  enemies. 

In  accordance  with  this  new  Bolshevist  policy  the 


THE  PRO-BOLSHEVISTS  129 

direct  propaganda  of  revolution  among  the  working 
classes  in  Europe  and  America  has  been  temporarily 
slowed  down,  while  sympathy  or  toleration  are  being 
sought  for  among  the  liberal  middle  classes.  "While 
Lenine  and  Trotzky  and  the  Bolshevist  press  of  Russia 
are  as  bloodthirsty  as  ever  for  home  consumption,  every 
statement  for  foreign  consumption  is  now  drawn  up 
according  to  the  new  diplomacy.  The  revolution,  we  are 
now  asked  to  believe,  is  not  merely  proletarian,  but 
democratic — and  represents  all  Russia,  even  the  peas- 
antry! Bolshevism  is  not  engaged  in  international  ag- 
gression against  world  democracy,  but  in  national 
defence  against  world  imperialism!  It  is  guiltless  o£ 
any  economic  destruction,  all  of  Russia's  myriad  indus- 
trial troubles  being  due  either  to  the  old  Russia  or  to  the 
Entente!  It  is  no  longer  waging  a  war  to  the  finish 
with  the  "bourgeoisie" — a  war  in  which  no  promises 
are  binding.  On  the  contrary  it  is  ready  for  any  and 
all  reasonable  compromises  and  can  safely  be  trusted! 

Unadulterated  Bolshevism  made  a  limited  appeal  (1) 
to  the  extremists  among  the  working  classes  and  (2)  a 
few  anarchists  among  the  intellectuals.  But  that  doc- 
trine, which  was  sufficient  for  the  Germanized  Com- 
missars and  the  motley  Red  Guards — composed  partly  of 
Chinese,  Letts  and  Hungarians,  and  largely  of  illiterate 
Russians — was  unable  to  win  over  the  g^iat  body  of 
the  labor  unions  or  even  the  Socialist  parties  of  western 
Europe,  and  secured  almost  no  adherents  outside  of  the 
wage-earning  classes. 

The  pro-Bolshevist  doctrine  now  finally  evolved — by 
the  aid  of  Lenine 's  foreign  advisors  in  Russia,  Europe 
and  America — is  a  very  different  article.  Where  the 
Russian  product  gained  one  adherent  the  new  export 


130  SOVIETISM 

doctrine  gains  a  dozen  among  the  wage  earners  and  a 
hundred  among  the  "intellectuals"  and  middle  classea 
It  has  already  captured  the  Socialist  parties  of  France, 
England  and  America,  and  may  yet  capture  the  British 
and  French  lahor  unions,  if  it  has  not  already  done  so. 
It  has  not  yet  gained  more  than  a  minority  of  the  mid- 
dle classes  in  any  country.  But  that  minority,  hoth  in 
England  and  America,  is  far  larger  than  most  people 
realize.  It  is  a  most  articulate  minority,  when  not  voci- 
ferous. And  it  combines  easily — as  did  pro-Germanism 
— with  every  kind  of  discontent,  intelligent  and  unintelli- 
gent, justified  and  unjustified — from  the  irrational  re- 
vived nationalism  of  the  small  and  secondary  nations  to 
the  growing  demand  for  radical  labor  reform.  The 
just  movements  it  confuses  and  perverts ;  it  gives  a  new 
force  and  unity  to  the  unjust. 

What  is  this  new  fanatical  force  which  is  trying  to 
usurp  the  title  "liberal"?  How  can  its  campaign  in 
support  of  the  unspeakable  Soviets  claim  such  a  con- 
siderable following  ?  A  hundred  thousand  young  Ameri- 
can ' '  intellectuals, ' '  graduates  of  our  colleges  and  higher 
institutions  of  learning,  are  weekly  being  taught  this 
anti-American,  anti-democratic,  pro-Soviet  doctrine  by 
certain  "high-brow"  publications,  irresponsible  corre- 
spondents, and  enthusiastic  lecturers  who  have  toured 
Bolshevist  Russia  under  the  personal  supervision  of  Le- 
nine,  having  proven  themselves  acceptable  to  the  dicta- 
tor. The  general  public  leniently  looks  on  at  the 
movement  as  wrong-headed  but  comparatively  harmless 
"parlor  Bolshevism."  On  the  contrary,  it  is  a  serious, 
persistent  and  world-wide  attack  on  the  foundations  of 
democratic  civilization — more  insidious,  more  flexible 
and  more  dangerous  than  Bolshevism  itself. 


THE  PRO-BOLSHEVISTS  131 

The  pro-Bolshevist  is  he  who  persistently  gives  actual 
aid  to  the  Communist  enemy.  And  we  need  never  be 
in  doubt  when  this  aid  is  given.  The  Bolshevists  quickly 
recognize  their  friends  and  always  express  appreciation 
of  arguments  that  help  their  cause. 

The  pro-Bolshevist  is  he  who  wants  to  do  for  the 
Bolsheviki  what  they  ask  to  be  done.  To-day  the  Bol- 
sheviki  want  (1)  economic  aid,  (2)  the  economic  and 
moral  recognition  implied  by  such  aid,  for  use  against 
their  internal  foes  and  (3)  that  financial  aid  be  with- 
drawn from  all  small  neighboring  peoples,  which,  with- 
out exception,  are  their  enemies.  In  view  of  the  ag- 
gressive purposes  of  the  Soviets,  publicly  avowed  a  thou- 
sand times  (until  they  fell  into  their  present  unfavor- 
able predicament)  and  having  regard  to  their  breaches 
with  "bourgeois"  governments,  against  which  their  very 
constitution  declares  war  unending,  the  acceptance  of 
this  program  is  pro-Bolshevism.  Also  the  Bolshevist 
may  be  just  as  effectively  aided  without  consideration 
of  any  of  these  international  questions,  simply  by  the 
defense  either  of  Bolshevist  theory  or  of  Bolshevist  prac- 
tice as  applied  in  Russia. 

This  is  pro-Bolshevism,  and  the  movement  has  had  a 
considerable  effect  not  only  on  the  "intellectuals"  but 
also  on  the  general  public,  which  is  in  no  sense  pro- 
Bolshevist.  For  example,  the  pro-Bolsheviki,  by  filling 
the  newspapers  with  false  reports  and  interpretations, 
have  succeeded  in  all  but  annihilating  the  effect  of  an 
immense  amount  of  reliable  Russian  information  from 
innumerable  other  sources. 

One  of  our  leading  newspaper  editors  went  so  far  as 
to  say  that  "we  know  nothing  about  Russia,"  a  state 
of  mind  that  could  only  have  been  brought  about  by 


132  SOVIETISM 

giving  precisely  the  same  weight  to  pro-Bolshevist  propa- 
ganda as  to  all  the  other  sources  of  information  conv- 
bined.  For  the  newspapers  have  freely  published  every 
Bolshevist  document  or  speech  of  any  importance,  in- 
cluding a  whole  book  of  Trotzky's  and  the  daily  cables 
of  their  official  foreign  mouthpiece,  Arthur  Ransome. 
The  confusion  came  from  the  boldness  of  such  dispatches. 
Though  they  bore  every  possible  internal  evidence  of 
their  own  falsity,  and  were  often  disproved  within  a 
short  time  by  later  disclosures,  they  were  sufficient  to 
cast  an  artificial  obscurity  over  the  entire  Russian  situa- 
tion. They  failed  to  gain  credence  for  themselves,  but 
they  succeeded  in  raising  doubt  about  all  the  news  that 
came  from  other  quarters. 


CHAPTER  XII 
VARIETIES    OF    PRO-BOLSHEVISM 

I — The  Near-Bolshevists 

There  are  several  degrees  of  pro-Bolshevism.  The 
most  extreme,  which  may  be  called  near-Bolshevism, 
does  not  hide  its  hearty  admiration  either  for  Bolshevism 
or  for  the  Bolshevik!  It  stands  not  only  for  the  Soviets 
but  for  more  or  less  similar  movements  in  other  countries. 
To  this  group  belong  William  C.  Bullitt,  Lincoln  Stef- 
fens,  and  the  " radical' '  generally,  from  the  regular 
Socialist  party  to  the  Nation  and  the  Dial.  It  is  on 
the  most  friendly  terms  with  the  Communists  in  Russia. 
It  wants  the  United  States  to  do  everything  in  its  power 
to  aid  the  Bolshevik  Soviets  against  their  internal  and 
external  enemies — such  aid,  as  outlined  by  Lenine  in 
his  offer  to  Bullitt,  being  economic  and  moral.  A  second 
group  has  the  same  object,  but  professes  opposition  to 
Bolshevism.  This  group  is  best  represented  by  Ray- 
mond Robins,  who  admitted  in  the  United  States  Senate 
hearing  that  he  favored  "an  economic  alliance"  with 
Lenine.  Robins  and  his  faithful  scribe,  William  Hard, 
have  been  so  voluminous  that  a  summary  is  necessary 
to  show  his  position.  With  Robins  is  also  a  small  mi- 
nority group  of  Red  Cross  and  Y.  M.  C.  A.  associates, 
who  have  been  equally  active  and  enthusiastic  in  trying 
to  win  the  philanthropists  and  churches  for  the  Soviets. 

133 


134  SOVIETISM 

To  these  have  been  added  several  of  the  new  so-called 
"liberal"  weeklies  like  The  New  Republic. 

Then  there  are  the  advocates  of  a  benevolent  neutral- 
ity. It  will  be  remembered  that  neutralism  and  pacifism 
was  the  final  form  of  the  German  propaganda  and  that 
it  succeeded  in  victimizing  a  number  of  earnest  and  in- 
telligent people  whom  the  Germans  could  not  have 
reached  by  a  direct  method.  Certain  academic  circles 
especialty  would  now  disarm  and  render  helpless  all 
parties  and  governments  that  are  struggling  heroically 
against  the  Red  tide — by  describing  the  Bolsheviki  as 
being  bad,  very  bad,  but  no  worse  than  their  opponents. 
Americans  who  defended  Germany's  armies,  saying  they 
were  no  worse  than  those  of  the  Entente,  were  accurately 
called  pro-German,  and  those  who  take  the  same  position 
as  to  the  Soviets  are  rightfully  termed  pro-Bolshevists. 
Let  us  review  briefly  the  arguments  put  forth  by  these 
three  groups.  We  need  not  stop  long  with  the  near- 
Bolshevists.  We  can  take  their  word  that  they  are  not 
Bolsheviki.  But  for  all  the  public  purposes  the  differ- 
ence is  not  important.  They  are  even  more  valuable  to 
Lenine  than  his  official  ambassadors,  precisely  because 
they  claim  to  be  non-partisan.  Their  criticisms  of  the 
Soviets  are  always  so  mild  as  to  practically  amount  to 
praising  them  by  faint  damns.  They  center  their  entire 
energy  and  animosity  on  the  opponents  of  the  Soviets, 
attacking  bitterly  every  one  of  the  anti-Bolshevik  critics, 
regardless  of  their  origin.  Caught  red-handed  in  this 
unfair  partisanship,  they  answer,  like  The  Nation,  that 
the  anti-Bolshevik  side  has  already  been  overstated — 
an  excuse  that  would  serve  equally  as  well  to  cover  the 
entire  Bolshevist  (or  any  other)  propaganda. 

Bullitt's  mission  to  Russia  was  limited  to  a  few  days, 


THE  PRO-BOLSHEVISTS  135 

when  he  brought  back  a  report  which  contained  exactly 
what  his  Paris  acquaintance  had  informed  the  American 
Government  it  would  contain — a  "whitewash"  of  the 
Bolsheviki.  In  this  brief  space  of  time  he  says  he  found 
out  the  views  of  a  hundred  million  people  scattered 
over  a  large  section  of  Europe  and  Asia.  The  Soviet 
form  of  government,  he  reports,  "has  acquired  such 
a  hold  on  the  imagination  of  the  common  people  that 
the  women  are  ready  to  starve  and  the  young  men  to 
die  for  it. ' '  Bullitt  does  not  condescend  to  deal  with  fig- 
ures ;  he  saw  the  nation  as  a  whole.  We  must  conclude 
that  in  these  few  days  he  read  widely  in  Russian,  i.  e., 
the  Bolshevist  press  and  found  out  what  the  illiterate 
Red  Guards  are  told  they  are  fighting  for  and  against, 
or  otherwise  he  could  have  no  basis  for  this  statement. 

In  the  same  few  days  Bullitt  was  able  to  evaluate  the 
entire  Soviet  governmental  machine  or  chaos  (which- 
ever it  may  be)  and  to  summarize  the  order  or  disorder, 
in  these  vast  territories,  for  he  informs  us  that  ' '  the  de- 
structive phase  of  the  revolution  is  over  and  all  the 
energy  of  the  government  is  turned  to  constructive 
work."  As  the  chief  example  of  this  constructive  work 
he  refers  to  the  famous  revolution  in  education  in  So- 
viet Russia.  For  the  schools  are  a  subject  he  also  mas- 
tered since  he  gives  his  endorsement  to  the  Bolshevist 
report  that  "thousands  of  new  schools  have  been 
opened  up  in  all  parts  of  Russia." 

The  reader  may  say  that  such  unsupported  statements 
of  obvious  Bolshevik  origin  need  not  be  taken  seriously. 
But  they  are  taken  seriously,  not  only  by  the  pro-Bolshe- 
vists but  by  a  larger  public  whom  the  pro-Bolshevist 
propaganda  has  confused  or  reduced  to  a  hopeless  quan- 
dary as  to  Russian  affairs.     Bullitt  and  his  group  are 


136  SOVIETISM 

dangerous  especially  in  their  claim  that  Lenine  is  evolv- 
ing and  is  ready  for  almost  any  concessions  in  order  to 
retain  his  power.  Even  if  this  were  true,  knowing  Le- 
nine, we  should  be  accomplices  in  his  crimes,  past  and 
to  come,  if  we  aided  him  to  retain  his  power.  But  it 
is  not  true. 

The  near-Bolshevists  do  not  have  much  weight  as  indi- 
viduals, and  are  not  very  numerous.  But  they  are  in- 
credibly active:  they  are  what  the  French  call  "energu- 
menes,"  that  is,  men  who  have  the  mania  of  energy. 
The  Bullitts  and  Steffenses  are  omnipresent  and  persist- 
ent. As  Jean  Longuet,  leader  of  the  pro-Bolshevist 
French  Socialists,  says :  ' '  Bullitt  and  Steffens  have  been 
the  best  and  most  useful  allies  of  the  Soviets."  More- 
over, writers  like  Ransome  and  Price,  practically  with- 
out responsibility  in  their  statements  and  fluent  beyond 
belief,  have  an  effect  on  the  ignorant  and  credulous 
which  is  world-wide  and  not  to  be  underestimated. 


CHAPTER  XHI 
VARIETIES  OF  PRO-BOLSHEVISM 

II — The  Pro-Soviet  Propagandists 

More  influential  and  dangerous  than  the  near-Bolshe- 
vist is  the  group  that  works  towards  political  recognition 
of  the  Soviets.  While  these  persons  do  not  propagate 
Bolshevism  directly,  they  lose  no  occasion  to  defend 
the  Bolsheviki  or  to  attack  their  opponents.  The 
leader  in  this  movement,  Raymond  Robins,  who  spent 
eleven  months  in  Russia  for  the  American  Red  Cross, 
saw  nothing  of  the  old  or  Czarist  Russia  and  little  of 
Russia  under  the  Kerensky  revolution,  arriving  in  Mos- 
cow and  Petrograd  only  a  few  weeks  before  the  over- 
throw of  the  Kerensky  government.  Nor  did  he  see 
much  of  the  real  Russia — the  agricultural  and  peasant 
country.  He  describes  his  sojourn,  in  the  Senate  hear- 
ings, as  having  been  confined  chiefly  to  Petrograd  and 
Moscow,  together  with  several  trips  across  the  country 
— which,  in  the  land  of  vast  distances,  means  weeks  con- 
sumed on  trains.  The  Russia  of  100  provinces  and 
100,000  villages,  or  any  considerable  or  representative 
part  of  it,  is  difficult  to  know  even  when  one  knows  the 
language  and  country  and  when  the  trains  are  running 
regularly  and  there  is  no  disintegration  of  the  railroads 
or  civil  war. 

What  Robins  lacked  in  knowledge  and  language  of 
the  people,  he  believes  he  made  up  by  getting  on  friendly 

137 


138  SOVIETISM 

terms  with  the  Bolshevik  leaders.  He  tells  us,  and  no 
doubt  told  himself,  that  he  did  this  with  the  idea  of 
serving  America  and  the  Russians,  but  he  proceeds  to 
speak  of  Lenine  and  Trotzky  in  terms  of  friendship  and 
admiration,  and  where  he  has  one  word  of  criticism  of 
their  policies,  he  has  a  hundred  of  apology  and  even  of 
praise.  Robins  doubtless  intended  to  serve  America. 
It  is  certain  that  the  Bolsheviki  believed  he  was  serving 
and  still  serves  the  Soviets — a  view  which  is  reinforced 
by  the  high  regard  he  expresses  for  them,  by  his  failure 
to  give  any  telling  evidence  against  them,  and  by  his 
readiness  now  to  extend  them  the  very  aid  they  say  is 
most  needed  to  continue  their  operation.  That  eminent 
Bolshevik,  Karl  Radek,  who  is  described  by  William 
Hard,  in  his  articles  on  Robins,  as  their  "most  power- 
ful propagandist  and  journalist"  and  "a  person  of 
power  in  Petrograd"  writes  of  Robins  with  enthu- 
siasm. Radek  says  that  the  Red  Cross  colonel  fully  en- 
dorsed the  central  position  of  the  Bolshevik  policy  and 
the  Senate  hearings  later  demonstrated  this  to  be  a  fact. 
Radek  says  that  Robins  agreed  with  his  Bolshevik  men- 
tors that ' '  in  Russia  only  two  things  were  possible,  either 
the  Soviet  Government  or  else  complete  chaos." 

1 '  He  did  not  waver, ' '  adds  Radek.  Indeed  he  did  not. 
He  states  before  the  Senators  that  he  stayed  in  Russia 
trying  to  maintain  a  semi-official  connection  with  the 
Bolsheviki  as  long  as  he  could,  then  returned  to  Amer- 
ica to  endeavor  to  secure  political  recognition  for  their 
government.  The  Bolsheviki  themselves  did  not  ask  for 
political  recognition,  however,  so  he  then  turned  his 
efforts  to  securing  economic  recognition;  "an  economic 
alliance,"  as  he  states  it,  with  this  Communist  govern- 
ment. 


THE  PRO-BOLSHEVISTS  139 

William  Hard  describes  Robins'  functions  in  Russia 
as  having  been  entirely  above  mere  diplomacy.  He  was 
a  sort  of  super-diplomat.  Ambassador  Francis,  on  the 
contrary,  describes  him  as  having  been  entrusted  merely 
momentarily  and  semi-officially  with  certain  public  mat- 
ters, as  thousands  of  private  individuals  have  been  en- 
trusted before  without  thereafter  claiming  to  have  had 
an  official  status.  Our  ambassador  also  speaks  of  Rob- 
ins as  having  presented  himself  as  "the  mouthpiece  of 
America,"  at  Bolshevik  headquarters,  and  as  having 
proved  most  acceptable  to  them.  Robins'  "outdoor" 
diplomacy  is  rather  a  long  story,  as  Robins  tells  it, 
and  Lenine  and  Trotzky  are  the  only  other  witnesses. 
The  quality  of  this  story,  however,  may  be  tested  by  a 
written  memorandum  of  Ambassador  Francis,  which  was 
the  best  evidence  Robins  could  produce  of  delegated 
authority.  This  memorandum  is  clear,  strong,  and  regu- 
lar, or  "indoor"  diplomacy.  When  Robbins  produced 
it  triumphantly  to  prove  his  case,  down  tumbled  the 
whole  "outdoor"  structure.  This  memorandum  was 
dated  January  2,  1918,  before  the  signing  of  the  Brest- 
Litovsk  Treaty.  It  concluded :  "If  the  Russian  armies 
now  under  the  command  of  the  people's  commissioners 
commence  and  seriously  conduct  hostilities  against  the 
forces  of  Germany  and  her  Allies,  I  will  recommend  to 
my  government  the  formal  recognition  of  the  de  facto 
government  of  the  people's  commissioners." 

Francis  was  concerned  solely  with  Bolshevik  perform- 
ance. Robins  wanted  and  still  wants  economic  assist- 
ance to  be  extended  to  the  Soviets  not  on  the  basis  of 
Bolshevik  performance  but  on  the  basis  of  Bolshevik 
promises.  For  Robins  says  of  Lenine  and  Trotzky  that 
they  could  keep  their  word.    Dealing  with  Robins  and 


140  SOVIETISM 

pleased  with  him,  it  seems  they  kept  certain  promises 
they  made  with  him  in  regard  to  the  Red  Cross,  con- 
densed milk  (which  they  consented  to  accept),  and 
similar  matters,  so  why  couldn't  they  be  trusted  as  to 
all  foreign  relations? 

Lenine  trained  his  Red  Army,  his  Bolshevik  Party, 
and  his  Soviets  to  the  doctrine  that  no  faith  need  be 
kept  with  the  bourgeois.  It  is  impossible  to  believe  that 
he  will  ever  permanently  change  his  view.  And  if  he 
does,  he  will  have  no  Bolshevik  following.  The  Russians 
who  can  be  trusted  are  the  ninety  per  cent,  who  have 
never  been  successfully  indoctrinated  with  Bolshevism. 
Lenine 's  ' '  concessions, ' '  which  affect  only  his  own  follow- 
ing, are  worthless. 

The  opening  wedge  for  cooperation  with  these  self- 
declared  enemies  of  existing  civilization,  as  proposed  by 
the  pro-Bolshevists,  is  to  be  the  sending  of  semi-military 
supplies  (such  as  locomotives — always  held  as  contra- 
band) into  Russia.  Now  the  Bolsheviki  have  declared 
they  will  annihilate  all  existing  governments,  and  they 
may  well  be  able  to  put  their  threats  into  effect  against 
some  of  the  neighboring  states.  As  late  as  last  Sep- 
tember, Trotzky  declared  that  he  would  crush  the  armies 
of  Poland  and  Roumania  in  turn,  and  if  the  Finns  did 
not  make  peace  he  would  begin  a  ' '  campaign  of  extermi- 
nation such  as  has  hitherto  been  unknown  in  history." 
Such  bloody  threats  have  been  made  almost  every  day 
by  Bolshevik  statesmen  and  editors,  and  in  so  far  as 
they  have  had  the  power  the  threats  have  been  only  too 
well  executed 

Robins  understands,  as  well  as  Lenine,  that  the  whole 
future  of  Bolshevism  depends  upon  the  Bolshevik  lead- 


THE  PRO-BOLSHEVISTS  141 

er's  success  in  obtaining  foreign  economic  support,  until 
revolutions,  aided  by  the  pressure  of  the  Soviet  armies, 
can  be  fostered  in  other  countries.  Hie  quotes  the  Soviet 
Czar  as  saying: 

"The  Russian  revolution  will  probably  fail.  "We  have 
not  developed  far  enough  into  the  capitalist  stage;  we 
are  too  primitive  to  realize  the  socialist  stage;  but  we 
will  keep  the  flame  of  revolution  alive  in  Russia  until 
it  breaks  out  in  Europe." 

How  does  Robins  defend  a  statement  like  this  ?  Why, 
simply  by  saying  that  he  does  not  believe  that  "the  So- 
yiet  government  would  send  troops,  if  it  had  troops  to 
send,  into  another  country  unless  there  was  a  revolution- 
ary movement  of  the  peasants  and  workers  of  that  coun- 
try." Robins  himself  admitted  that  as  soon  as  Soviet 
groups  were  formed  against  the  new  German  govern- 
ment this  satisfied  the  Bolshevist  requirements  and  gave 
a  sufficient  ground  for  attack.  Upon  being  pressed  he 
further  admitted  that  they  would,  in  general,  send  troops 
into  England  and  America,  if  they  could,  to  support  a 
revolutionary  minority  in  these  countries,  no  matter 
how  small  that  minority  might  be ! 

Turning  to  the  internal  situation,  Robins  says  that 
the  Bolsheviki  have  carried  their  "class,  materialist, 
force  formulas  beyond  the  range  of  theory,  to  where 
these  formulas  produce  class  terror  and  economic  ruin. ' ' 
After  a  few  words  of  this  kind  he  proceeds  to  a  lengthy 
defense  of  the  Soviets'  internal  policies — even  adopting 
their  class-war  theory  under  another  name.  Russia,  we 
are  told,  is  a  very  strange  country  and  the  Russians  a 
strange  people.  In  Russia  there  are  no  middle  classes. 
There  are  only  "the  seven  per  cent,  who  enjoyed  some 
advantages  under  the  old  regime  and  ninety-three  per 


142  SOVIETISM 

cent,  who  did  not."  Now  this  proposition,  applied 
generally,  is  all  there  is  to  the  "class  struggle"  doc- 
trine. As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  middle  classes  in  Russian 
town  and  country  were  numbered  by  the  tens  of  millions 
and  existed  in  countless  varieties.  Yet  it  is  the  Lenine 
doctrine  that  the  world  consists  exclusively  of  "prole- 
tarians" and  "bourgeois"  who  necessarily  seek  one  an- 
other 's  enslavement  or  destruction.  Only  Lenine  is  more 
consistent  than  his  American  apologist.  A  large  part 
of  the  peasantry,  if  not  the  majority,  he  admits  are 
middle  class. 

This  strange,  crude  dogma  is  the  basis  of  Robins' 
reasoning  about  Russia.  He  says :  ' '  The  seven  per  cent 
had  everything,  the  ninety-three  per  cent,  had  nothing." 
Yet  fully  two-thirds  of  the  hundred  million  peasants 
were  exclusively  occupied  on  their  own  farms.  He  says : 
"There  were  only  two  things  in  Russia,  the  Soviet  and 
the  old  regime."  Yet  the  Soviet  has  not  dared  to  have 
one  election  by  universal,  equal  and  secret  ballot  in  a 
single  industrial  center  of  Russia,  while  all  the  popular 
and  middle-class  parties,  except  the  Bolsheviki,  favor  a 
Constitutional  Assembly  as  against  Soviet  rule. 

This  civil  war  on  class  lines  inevitably  leads  to  the 
Terror — a  fact  that  Lenine  and  Trotzky  have  never 
ceased  to  recognize  and  proclaim.  Yet  Robins  adopts 
the  recent  excuse  and  after-thought  of  Lenine  that  the 
Terror  was  due  solely  to  Entente  and  American  inter- 
vention. "In  the  capitalistic  community,"  wrote  Le- 
nine, last  spring,  in  the  Copenhagen  Politiken,  "there 
can  be  no  middle  course  between  bourgeois  dictatorship 
and  proletarian  dictatorship."  Even  America  and 
Switzerland,  he  says,  are  "bourgeois  dictatorships." 
If   we   accept  this  reasoning,   whether   especially   for 


THE  PRO-BOLSHEVISTS  143 

Russia,  as  does  Robins,  or  for  all  countries,  Lenine's 
conclusion  is  unavoidable,  namely,  that  "in  such  a  state 
of  things  the  proletarian  dictatorship  is  not  only  fully 
justified  as  a  means  to  overthrow  the  extortioners  and 
suppress  their  resistance,  but  is  also  absolutely  necessary 
for  the  protection  of  the  mass  of  the  workingmen  against 
bourgeois  dictatorship. ' ' 

Lenine  and  Trotzky  leave  no  doubt  that  this  means 
Terror.  Long  before  the  intervention  Trotzky  said  in 
Petrograd:  "You  are  perturbed  by  the  mild  Terror  we 
are  applying  against  our  class  enemies.  But  we  know 
that  not  later  than  a  month  hence  this  Terror  will  take 
a  more  terrible  form  on  the  model  of  the  French  revolu- 
tion. "  This  threat  was  abundantly  carried  out.  Trotzky 
especially  urged  it  against  the  Social  Democrats  and 
Social  Revolutionists  who  he  admitted  were  numerous 
enough  to  give  great  trouble.  It  was  Trotzky  who  also 
issued  the  first  army  order  to  take  officers'  families  as 
hostages.  We  read  in  "Beidnota,"  a  Bolshevist  paper: 
"Let  the  deserters  know  that  they  are  betraying  at  the 
same  time  their  own  families,  their  fathers,  mothers, 
sisters,  brothers,  wives  and  children.  I  charge  Comrade 
Aralov  with  carrying  out  all  necessary  steps  for  the  de- 
tention of  the  families  of  the  traitorous  deserters." 

One  of  Robins'  answers  to  the  charge  of  innumera- 
ble and  monstrous  crimes  committed  by  the  Bolsheviki 
must  have  appeared  in  every  Bolshevik  organ  of  the 
world.  Against  the  charge  that  they  are  criminals  Rob- 
ins declared :  ' '  Suppose  they  are :  some  of  us  have  been 
in  politics  and  dealt  with  American  political  bosses, 
and  if  there  is  any  one  more  corrupt  or  worse  in  Smolny 
than  some  of  our  crooks,  then  they  are  some  crooked, 
that 's  all. "    As  if  the  leaders  of  Tammany  Hall,  or  any 


144  SOVIETISM 

of  our  political  organizations,  could  or  would  prepare 
the  systematic  slaughter  of  opposition  leaders ! 

Enough  has  been  said  to  demonstrate  where  Robins' 
sympathies  lie.  He  not  only  defended  the  Bolsheviki 
where  they  refused  to  defend  themselves.  He  seemed  to 
forget  his  early  admissions  in  the  zeal  of  his  later  apol- 
ogies. After  admitting  that  the  Bolsheviks  had  intro- 
duced "  class  terror  by  carrying  their  class,  materialist, 
force  formulas  beyond  the  range  of  theory, ' '  he  said  that 
they  were  "very  moderate"  until  the  time  he  left  and 
that  "no  general  terror  prevailed."  Pressed  later  by 
Major  Humes,  he  explained:  "I  saw  no  organized  terror, 
Mr.  Humes.  ...  I  happened  to  see  nobody  stood  up 
and  shot."  Surely  a  very  different  matter.  A  hundred 
witnesses  might  have  been  in  Paris  during  the  whole 
Reign  of  Terror  without  seeing  anybody  killed  or  ex- 
ecuted. 

Robins  suggests  that  the  credentials  of  one  of  the 
Soviet  congresses  which  he  saw  proved  that  it  adequately 
represented  Russia.  An  expert  commission  knowing 
Russia  and  the  Russian  language  would  take  a  long  time 
to  reach  any  such  conclusion — since  (1)  the  Soviet  elec- 
tion laws  have  been  changed  repeatedly  by  Lenine  and 
his  associates,  (2)  intimidation  prevails  in  the  factories, 
and  (3)  any  undesirables  have  only  to  be  called  counter- 
revolutionary to  be  excluded  from  the  vote.  He  similarly 
passes  judgment  on  the  composition  of  that  other  all- 
important  Bolshevik  body,  the  Red  Army,  stating  posi- 
tively that  there  were  not  any  Chinese  in  it  before  he 
left.  Numerous  eye-witnesses  have  stated  the  contrary. 
But,  however  that  may  be,  it  is  certainly  amazing  that 
Robins  should  undertake  to  guarantee  to  us  the  com- 
position of  this  entire  army,  divided  as  it  is  into  a  thou- 


THE  PKO-BOLSHEYISTS  145 

sand  cantonments,  only  a  few  of  which  he  could  have 
seen.  He  says  that  the  detachments  sent  to  expropriate 
the  grain  in  the  villages  only  took  the  surplus  stocks  of 
the  well-to-do  and  often  had  the  "laughing  cooperation" 
of  the  peasants.  Yet  hundreds  and  thousands  of  mem- 
bers of  these  detachments  were  killed,  according  to  of- 
ficial Bolshevik  reports,  and  the  universal  resistance 
they  have  created  is  admitted  by  Lenine  and  the  other 
leaders  as  the  most  serious  internal  problem  they  have 
to  face.* 

*  That  my  view  of  Eobins'  Russian  propaganda  is  widely 
shared  could  be  shown  by  many  quotations.  The  following 
from  the  usually  pro-Soviet  New  York  Globe's  review  of  William 
Hard's  "Raymond  Eobins'  Own  Story"  (the  work  above  quoted^ 
will  suffice: 

Mr.  Hard  bases  his  story  on  the  solid  premise  that  Ray- 
mond Robins  is  "the  most  anti-Bolshevik  person"  he  has  ever 
known,  who  believes  the  "economic  system  of  Bolshevism  is 
morally  unsound  and  industrially  unworkable."  But  this  hav- 
ing been  stated  on  an  early  page,  there  is  little  else  in  the 
book  to  warrant  the  premise.  On  the  contrary,  Colonel  Robins' 
efforts  to  have  his  own  country  recognize  and  accept  the  Soviet 
in  Russia,  and  Lenine  and  Trotzky  as  trustworthy  agents, 
gives  the  impression  that  he  is  in  sympathy  with  the  present 
regime  in  Russia,  because  he  regards  it  as  successful  and  be- 
lieves it  will  endure.  It  seems  to  us  that  Robins'  story  would 
be  much  stronger,  if  it  could  be  said  that  he  is  pro-Bolshevik, 
because  of  what  he  saw  in  Russia,  under  exceptionally  favor- 
able circumstances,  and  because  of  his  own  experience  with 
Lenine  and  Trotzky,  whom  he  found  honorable  in  all  their  deal- 
ings with  him. 

Colonel  Robins'  book,  in  fact,  throws  such  a  favorable  light 
on  Lenine  and  Trotzky  and  the  Bolshevik  government  that  it 
is  difficult  to  believe  in  his  own  anti-Bolshevism.  It  would 
be  a  curious  thing  if  he  should  convert  a  great  many  people 
to  something  he  himself  does  not  believe  in.  Yet  it  looks  as 
if  this  might  happen,  since  up  to  date  he  is  the  star  witness 
for  the  case  of  the  Bolshevists.  If  he  saw  anything  in  Russia 
to  discredit  Bolshevism,  at  least  he  does  not  tell  it. 


CHAPTER  XTX 

VARIETIES  OF  PRO-BOLSHEVISM 

III — Benevolent  Neutrality- 
Robins  merits  attention  because  he  is  the  most  in- 
fluential of  the  friends  of  the  Soviets — and  because  he 
is  typical  of  a  dozen  others  who  are  putting  out  the 
same  arguments  on  the  same  slender  basis  of  fact.  His 
group  is  undoubtedly  the  most  valuable  to  the  Bolshe- 
viki,  if  we  except  the  dominating  factions  of  the  Social- 
ist and  Labor  parties  of  Europe — only  the  extreme  left 
wings  of  which  are  out-and-out  Communists.  But  there 
is  another  group  in  England  and  America  that  is  render- 
ing important  assistance  to  the  Soviets;  that  is,  those 
who  propose  a  policy  of  benevolent  neutrality. 

Especially  in  academic  and  literary  circles  there  is  a 
considerable  number  who  not  only  find  about  as  much 
to  say  for  the  Soviets  as  against  them,,  but  go  further 
and  decry  all  effective  opposition.  Leading  scientific 
publications  have  adopted  an  attitude  that  gives  the 
strange  "evidence"  of  the  pro-Bolshevists  as  much 
space  as  their  most  scrupulous  and  competent  critics, 
thus  causing  fcke  uninformed  to  remain  in  doubt  as  to 
their  position.  The  Annals  of  American  Academy  and 
the  Political  Science  Review  give  an  amount  of  space 
to  these  apologists  that  is  equivalent  to  liberal  contribu- 
tion to  the  pro-Bolshevist  agitation.  A  writer  typical 
of  many  of  this  kind  is  R.  M.  Story,  Ph.D.,  whose  main 

146 


THE  PRO-BOLSHEVISTS  147 

thesis  is  that  the  Bolsheviks  and  the  Soviets  are  two 
different  things. 

Like  Robins,  Story  renounces  Bolshevism  briefly  and 
defends  it  at  length.  He  says,  "It  mocks  international 
obligations  and  revels  in  intrigue.  With  audacious  im- 
pertinence it  seeks  to  override  existing  democracies  and 
voices  its  claim  to  world  dominion. ' '  But  he  takes  away 
all  practical  value  from  this  denunciation,  first,  by  ap- 
plying equally  strong  language  to  the  anti-Bolshevists 
and  then  by  praising  the  Bolshevik  Soviets.  "Unutter- 
able infamies"  have  been  committed — by  both  sides.  So 
the  entire  Reign  of  Terror,  though  inaugurated  by  Lenine 
and  by  Lenine  alone,  is  disposed  of.  The  Russian  So- 
cialists and  liberals,  victims  of  the  Terror,  who  have 
been  calling  for  help,  are  all  lumped  together  with  worth- 
less refugees  of  the  old  regime  as  the  "soulless  vultur- 
ous creatures,  who  from  their  emigre  havens  outside  of 
Russia  have  been  calling  the  world  to  rescue  their  prey 
for  them. ' '  The  entire  opposition  to  the  Soviets,  voiced 
by  half  a  dozen  parties,  nearly  all  democrats  or  revolu- 
tionists, is  referred  to  as  the  "misery  and  wailings  of 
former  oppressors." 

The  Bolshevists,  we  are  told,  saved  the  social  and  eco- 
nomic character  of  the  revolution  from  the  moderate  So- 
cialists. The  Russians  do  not  want  democracy  as  Amer- 
ica and  the  rest  of  the  world  have  evolved  it;  their 
desire  is  for  the  Soviets!  The  average  Russian  peasant 
and  workingman  trusts  the  Soviets  but  would  not  trust 
a  Constitutional  Assembly!  How  Story  came  to  know 
the  opinion  of  the  average  resident  of  this  great  Empire 
in  a  few  months  he  does  not  say.  But  what  is  certain 
is  that  it  is  only  two  years  since  Russia  expressed  its  con- 
fidence in  a  Constitutional  Assembly  in  the  only  real 


148  SOVIETISM 

election  the  country  has  ever  had.  Story  is  concerned 
to  find  an  apology  for  the  fact  that  the  Soviets  are  but 
creatures  and  tools  of  the  Bolshevik  party — as  they  were 
intended  to  be  when  the  Bolsheviks  endowed  them  with 
sovereignty  and  gave  them  the  political  power.  He  by 
no  means  denies  this  glaring  fact  of  minority  control. 
"For  the  moment  the  party  in  power  may  even  resort 
to  the  suppression  of  minorities  in  the  Soviet. ' '  He  ad- 
mits further  "executive  usurpation,  legislative  perver- 
sion and  the  substitution  of  inquisition  and  terrorism 
for  judicial  procedure"  and  that  even  the  Soviets'  weird 
"principles"  are  not  safe  from  this  iron  party  dictator- 
ship and  anarchic  violence.  "Wanton  violations  of  So- 
viet principles  have  been  serious.  In  order  to  gain  time 
and  the  appearance  of  unity  the  ruthless  suppression 
of  minorities  and  every  immorality  known  to  statecraft 
have  been  employed." 

Is  this  not  enough  of  an  indictment  ?  It  troubles  our 
witness  little.  Though  the  Soviets  have  been  under  the 
rigid  control  of  the  Bolshevik  party  from  the  moment 
they  were  given  supreme  power,  we  are  assured  they 
offer  "immediate,  effective,  and  constant  opportunity 
for  party  change"  and  that  "there  is  and  can  be  no 
assured  tenure  of  party  control  so  long  as  the  Soviet  as 
an  institution  continues  to  function!" 

In  spite  of  the  "popular"  Soviets,  Story  admits  that 
the  power  of  Lenine,  the  chief  commissar,  is  absolute 
and  that  "the  word  of  Czar  was  never  more  authorita- 
tive." How  is  this  Czarism  to  be  reconciled  with  pop- 
ular control  ?  Very  easily ;  it  is  the  same  as  in  the  United 
States !  ' '  The  position  and  power  of  the  chief  commissar 
in  Eussia  has  been  actually  as  strong  as  that  of  an 
American  president  during  the  war,  perhaps  stronger." 


THE  PRO-BOLSHEVISTS  149 

Of  course,  Story's  first  statement  was  the  true  one — 
Lenine  is  following  the  precedent  of  Russian  Czarism 
and  not  of  American  presidents.  The  power  of  life 
and  death  is  held  theoretically  but  is  little  exercised  by 
our  presidents;  it  was  the  power  that  governed  Russia 
in  war  and  in  peace  under  the  czars  and  it  is  the  power 
that  governs  Russia  in  war  and  peace  under  the  Bolshe- 
vist dictatorship. 

The  Soviets  have  become  the  rallying  cry  of  ultra- 
radicalism  in  America  as  in  other  countries.  But  this 
is  not  the  real  danger  here.  The  danger  is  that  a  great 
many  who  were  not  ultra-radicals  have  been  brought 
gradually  and  subconsciously  to  that  position  by  their 
championship  of  the  Soviets,  and  many  of  these  are 
still  unaware  of  the  full  implications  of  the  moral  aid 
they  are  giving  the  Bolshevik  movement  and  Bolshevik 
principles.  Sovietism  is  the  wedge  by  which  these  peo- 
ple are  being  separated  from  democracy.  The  point  is 
not  that  they  favor  Bolshevism,  for  the  Soviets  may 
soon  pass  away,  but  that  they  are  abandoning  our  demo- 
cratic principles  and  ideals  and  introducing  a  perverted 
form  of  reasoning  and  a  habit  of  playing  with  truth 
that  is  likely  to  be  used  for  the  next  bad  cause  that 
comes  along.  That  cause  may  come  soon  and  it  may 
be  neither  so  hopeless  nor  so  obviously  anti-American 
as  the  cause  of  the  Soviets.  The  pro-Soviet  "liberals" 
are  laying  tine,  foundations  in  America  for  a  permanent, 
anti-democratic  revolutionary  movement  on  tlie  Euro- 
pean model.  ' 

l 


CHAPTEE  XV 

NON-BOLSHEVIST   SUPPORT    FOR   THE   RUS- 
SIAN SOVIETS 

Bolshevism  has  proven  and  still  proves  useful  to  many 
non-Bolshevists — a  part  of  whom  therefore  give  it,  tem- 
porarily, an  active  or  passive  support.  This  was  seen 
by  the  whole  world  when  the  Kaiser  and  Ludendorff 
did  all  in  their  power  for  the  Bolsheviki  against  all 
other  parties  in  Russia. 

Thus  Bolshevism  appeals  to  many,  though  not  to  all, 
members  of  the  following  non-Bolshevist  groups: 

Pro-Germans. 
i    Anti-British. 

Embittered  pacifists,  filled  with  a  violent  desire  for 
revenge  against  all  governments  that  participated  in  the 
late  war. 

Certain  diplomats,  variously  interested  in  Russia,  who 
expect  the  Soviets  to  serve  either  to  strengthen  or  to 
weaken,  to  divide  or  to  unite  that  all-important  country. 

Certain  financiers,  who  want  the  Bolshevists  either 
to  destroy  their  rivals'  Russian  loans,  concessions,  or 
trade  or  to  provide  them  with  concessions,  trade,  or  raw 
materials.  Some  expect  these  purposes  will  be  best 
served  by  a  temporary  Bolshevist  regime  followed  either 
by  a  democratic  or  by  a  monarchist  revolution,  others 
look  forward  to  their  evolution  into  rulers  somewhat  on 
the  Mexican  or  Chinese  models. 

160 


THE  PRO-BOLSHEVISTS  151 

The  extreme  opposition  politician,  attacking  whatever 
governments  do  as  wrong,  or  endorsing  without  enquiry 
any  anti-governmental  foreign  policy  that  has  any  fol- 
lowing whatever,  on  the  principle  that  most  people  are 
indifferent  about  it,  that  it  will  never  be  tried  out,  or 
that — even  if  it  makes  him  trouble — it  will  not  make  him 
as  much  trouble  as  to  take  a  definite  stand  on  any  con- 
troverted domestic  question. 

An  effort  is  now  being  made  to  unite  all  these  non- 
Bolshevist  supporters  of  Sovietism,  the  pro-Bolshevists 
and  all  vaguely  "liberal"  and  humanitarian  sentiment 
in  a  friendly  policy  described  alternately  as  an  effort 
to  give  the  Soviets  a  fair  chance  and  leave  the  Russian 
"people"  free  to  work  out  "their  own"  destiny  and  as 
an  effort  to  kill  Sovietism  by  kindness. 

Killing  Sovietism  by  Kindness. — For  a  whole  year 
past,  American  Communists,  Socialists  and  parlor  Bol- 
shevist publications  have  been  concentrating  on  peace 
with  "Russia"  propaganda — the  first-named  undoubt- 
edly, by  direct  instructions  from  Moscow.  The  chief 
argument  has  been  that  the  sufferings  of  the  Russian 
people  are  due  to  the  Entente  blockade  and  not  to  the 
Bolsheviki.  The  evidence  on  this  point  has  been  sum- 
marized in  Chapter  VIII. 

The  women  and  children  of  Russia  have  been  deliber- 
ately sacrificed  in  order  to  preserve  Soviet  rule  over  the 
anti-Soviet  population,  especially  the  peasantry,  ninety 
per  cent,  of  the  Russian  people. 

Here  is  the  beginning  and  the  end  of  the  "starvation" 
of  food-producing  Russia,  which  has  been  blamed  upon 
the  Entente  blockade  and  made  the  basis  of  the  whole 
pro-Bolshevist  press  campaign.  The  real  objective,  of 
course,  has  nothing  to  do  with  food  (for  the  Red  armies 


152  SOVIETISM 

are  well  supplied)  but  with  military  supplies  and  ma- 
chinery to  reinforce  the  Red  armies  and  prop  up  Le- 
nine's  crumbling  industrial  structure. 

But  while  these  military  supplies  might  enable  Bolshe- 
vism to  spread  rapidly  in  neighboring  countries  or  to 
conquer  them  by  the  sword,  they  probably  could  not  save 
Russia  from  a  vast  amount  of  starvation.  For  if  the 
peasant  continues  to  plant  for  his  own  needs  only  the 
Russian  city  population  cannot  continue  to  exist  through 
another  winter  and  spring.  The  Bolshevists  know  this. 
Hence  they  expect  to  expend  the  last  ounce  of  their 
energy  in  1920.  As  their  New  Year's  message  suggests 
1920  is  the  year  to  establish  permanent  Soviet  rule  in 
other  countries.  If  this  can  be  done  Bolshevism  will 
have  accomplished  its  object — whatever  may  happen  in 
Russia  afterwards.  As  Lenine  said  to  Raymond  Rob- 
ins, this  is  the  sole  hope,  as  Russia  is  not  ripe  for  Bol- 
shevism, anyway !  The  Russian  people  are  being  forced 
to  pay  the  bill,  the  other  peoples  are  to  get  the  "  ben- 
efits"! 

The  world  is  at  peace  with  the  Soviets  at  the  present 
moment  as  far  as  any  remnants  of  military  operations 
are  concerned.  But  what  the  Soviets  want  is  a  declara- 
tion of  peace  involving  recognition  so  that  there  may  be 
no  political  obstacles  to  trade  and  that  they  may  have 
the  prestige  of  being  a  regularly  recognized  government. 
The  ulterior  purpose  of  this  desire  for  a  declaration  of 
peace  is  finally  and  sufficiently  demonstrated  by  the 
following  words  in  Lenine 's  address  before  the  so-called 
Council  of  the  People's  Commissaries  during  the  nego- 
tiations on  the  Prinkipo  proposal  (see  The  Daily  Chron- 
icle of  March  6,  1919) : 


THE  PRO-BOLSHEVISTS  153 

"The  successful  development  of  the  Bolshevik 
doctrine  throughout  the  world  can  only  be  effected 
by  means  of  periods  of  rest  during  which  we  may  re- 
cuperate and  gather  new  strength  for  further 
exertions.  I  have  never  hesitated  to  come  to  terms 
with  bourgeois  governments,  when  by  so  doing  I 
thought  I  could  weaken  the  bourgeoisie.  It  is  sound 
strategy  in  war  to  postpone  operations  until  the 
moral  disintegration  of  the  enemy  renders  the  de- 
livery of  a  mortal  blow  possible.  This  was  the  policy 
we  adopted  towards  the  German  Empire,  and  it  has 
proved  successful.  The  time  has  now  come  for  us 
to  conclude  a  second  Brest-Litovsk,  this  time  with 
the  Entente.  We  must  make  peace  not  only  with 
the  Entente,  but  also  with  Poland,  Lithuania,  and 
the  Ukraine,  and  all  the  other  forces  which  are  op- 
posing us  in  Russia.  We  must  be  prepared  to  make 
every  concession,  promise  and  sacrifice  in  order  to 
entice  our  foes  into  the  conclusion  of  this  peace. 
We  shall  know  that  we  have  but  concluded  a  truce 
permitting  us  to  complete  our  preparations  for  a  de- 
cisive onslaught  which  will  assure  our  triumph." 


Foreign  Capital  to  Rescue  Sovietism? — Russia  being 
wrecked  industrially,  according  to  their  own  figures, 
the  Bolshevists  now  propose  to  persuade  foreign  capital 
to  save  it.  First  a  promise  was  made  to  pay  Russia's 
debts  and  to  grant  concessions.  As  the  foreign  capital- 
ists did  not  feel  they  could  rely  on  these  promises  no 
attention  was  paid  to  them.  Next,  huge  supplies  of  sur- 
plus wheat,  flax  and  raw  materials  were  offered.  In  the 
opinion  of  so  high  an  authority  as  Herbert  Hoover  there 
is  comparatively  little  wheat  or  other  raw  materials  to 
export.  The  flax  situation  (Russia  formerly  produced 
seventy-nine  per  cent,  of  the  world's  supplies)    is  es- 


154  SOVIETISM 

pecially  important  as  helping  to  account  for  the  pro- 
Soviet  position  of  the  powerful  textile  and  other  British 
interests  represented  by  the  Manchester  Guardian.  But 
even  this  flax  surplus,  which  might  do  so  much  to  help 
the  Bolshevists  in  their  desperate  needs,  has  also  dis- 
appeared under  the  Soviet  economic  policies.  Accord- 
ing to  Lincoln  Eyre,  Rikov's  report,  which  is  the  basis 
of  the  action  of  the  Supreme  Council  of  Public  Economy, 
shows  the  following  condition: 

' '  The  ground  sown  with  flax  has  been  diminished 
by  about  forty  per  cent,  and  the  harvest  reduced 
from  some  20,000,000  pounds  yearly  to  less  than 
5,000,000,  the  likelihood  of  a  still  further  decrease 
revealing  itself  moreover  in  December  and  January. 
The  chief  reason  for  this  lay  in  the  fact  that  the 
peasants  prefer  to  raise  corn  rather  than  flax,  be- 
cause they  could  sell  the  former  to  speculators, 
whereas  the  only  purchaser  for  the  latter  was  the 
Government,  which,  of  course,  paid  fixed  prices. 
Stocks  of  flax  now  in  hand  are  only  sufficient  to 
supply  Russian  industry  for  from  eight  months  to 
one  year. 

"There  is  no  possibility  of  England  and  North- 
ern France,  which  consumed  large  quantities  of  the 
thirty  per  cent,  of  Russia's  flax  crop  that  was  ex- 
ported in  peace  times,  getting  any  considerable 
quantity  of  this  commodity  in  the  near  future. ' ' 

The  proposal  that  world  capital  should  rescue  the 
world  revolution,  ostensibly  directed  against  capital,  is 
itself  an  amazing  proposition — showing  the  boldness  and 
duplicity  of  the  propaganda  the  Soviets  have  spread 
over  the  earth,  and  suggesting  the  sinister  intrigue  with 
reactionary  or  piratical  capitalist  groups  that  has  all 
along  accompanied  it. 


THE  PRO-BOLSHEVISTS  155 

But  this  insufficiency  of  raw  material  for  export  in- 
dicates that  after  all  the  proposal  of  an  economic  al- 
liance with  private  capital,  which  could  not  come  to 
much  for  a  long  period — and  every  moment  is  critical 
for  Soviet  Russia — is  a  mere  cloak  for  a  deeper,  more 
practical,  and  more  immediate  policy. 

Recognition  the  Real  Object  of  the  Economic  Propa- 
ganda.— If  Herbert  Hoover  is  right,  and  Russia  has 
neither  large  means,  a  large  raw  material  reserve, 
or  transport  facilities  to  pay  for  large  imports,  then 
what  is  the  main  object  of  the  world-wide  economic 
propaganda  of  the  Soviets  ?  A  statement  of  the  Soviets 
issued  March  15,  1920,  shows  that  the  objects  are  (1) 
political  recognition  and  (2)  limited  emergency  sup- 
plies, such  as  railway  engines,  which  would  double  the 
Soviets'  military  and  industrial  power.  Further  Rus- 
sian trade,  beyond  these  emergency  supplies,  must  be  ex- 
tremely slow  to  develop — but  it  is  to  be  dangled  before 
the  eyes  of  certain  foreign  capitalists  as  a  reward  if 
they  obtain  political  recognition  of  the  Soviets  #by  their 
government.     The  Soviet  statement  is  as  follows: 

"Announcement  was  made  by  the  Commercial 
Department  of  the  Russian  Soviet  Government  Bu- 
reau (the  Bolshevist  organization  here  headed  by 
L.  C.  K.  Martens)  that  in  accordance  with  definite 
instructions  received  from  the  Soviet  Government 
the  bureau  would  not  entertain  any  offers  from 
American  firms  or  manufacturers  for  export  to  So- 
viet Russia  until  such  time  as  commercial  intercourse 
between  the  United  States  and  Russia  had  been  fully 
established. 

"It  is  obvious  that  no  trade  between  the  two 
countries  can  be  carried  on  with  freedom  and  mutual 
representation  without  free  communication  by  mail 
and  wire  and  without  a  definite  understanding  be- 


156  SOVIETISM 

tween  the  two  countries  concerning  the  exchange  of 
commodities  and  security  for  all  Russian  funds  in 
the  United  States,"  the  statement  said. 

The  only  deviation  for  the  present  from  this  pol- 
icy, it  was  said,  was  that  the  bureau  had  been 
authorized  to  place  orders  in  the  United  States  for 
2,000  locomotives  and  the  corresponding  amount  of 
railroad  cars  and  equipment,  for  which  payment 
would  be  made  in  gold  or  its  equivalent  upon  de- 
livery at  ports  in  Soviet  Russia  as  soon  as  these  were 
open  to  foreign  trade. 

Mr.  Alonzo  Taylor  reports  (in  the  Saturday  Evening 
Post)  an  illuminating  interview  with  a  leading  Bolshe- 
vist which  is  typical  of  hundreds  of  Bolshevist  declara- 
tions showing  that  what  Sovietism  needs  most  was  not 
the  Entente  proposal  to  provide  clothing,  agricultural 
implements  and  other  necessities  but  the  raising  of  the 
military  blockade,  and  that  this  meant  recognition.  Mr. 
Taylor  asked: 

"What  is  the  most  imperative  thing  for  Russia,  cmd 
for  Communism  in  Russia,  at  the  present  moment?" 

The  Sovietist  answered: 

"Establishment  of  peace,  lifting  of  the  blockade;  and 
restoration  of  trade  relations  with  the  world." 

We  need  not  doubt  that  what  Communism  most  needs 
in  Russia  and  in  the  world  is  (1)  the  military  reinforce- 
ment of  the  Soviets  by  imported  supplies  and  (2)  direct 
or  indirect  recognition  by  other  nations. 

Just  what  this  recognition  would  mean  is  shown  at 
length  in  the  following  chapter.  It  is  sufficiently  in- 
dicated for  our  present  purpose  by  an  important  speech 
of  the  most  influential  Bolshevist  leader  after  Lenine 
and  Trotzky. 

Zinoviev,  president  of  the  Petrograd  Soviet,  speaking 


THE  PRO-BOLSHEVISTS  157 

February  2,  1919,  on  the  subject  of  the  Princes  Island 
proposal,  said: 

"We  are  willing  to  sign  unfavorable  peace  with 
the  Allies.  It  would  only  mean  that  we  should  put 
no  trust  whatever  in  the  bit  of  paper  we  should 
sign.  We  should  use  the  breathing  space  so  obtained 
in  order  to  gather  our  strength  in  order  that  the 
more  continued  existence  of  our  government  would 
keep  up  the  world-wide  propaganda,  which  Soviet 
Russia  has  been  carrying  on  for  more  than  a  year. ' ' 

Mr.  Taylor  asked  another  question  of  his  Bolshevist 
authority:  "Suppose  peace  were  declared  to-morrow, 
would  you  cease  propaganda?"  The  answer  was  that 
in  that  case  no  other  propaganda  would  be  needed  than 
the  continued  existence  and  apparent  success  of  the  So- 
viets. Propaganda  "in  an  organized  manner  would 
cease  at  once,"  he  said,  "but  of  course,  Socialists  all 
over  the  world  have  a  right  to  come  to  Russia  and  study 
our  system  and  return  to  their  homes  and  attempt  to 
bring  it  in  operation  there  if  they  come  to  believe  in  it. ' ' 
These  non-partisan  ( ?)  observers  would  then  be  able 
rapidly  to  absorb  the  training  and  propaganda  of  Mos- 
cow, and  would  return  on  the  supposition  that  they  had 
been  converted  by  what  they  saw  on  the  spot.  The 
methods  they  would  use  to  try  to  bring  Sovietism  into 
operation  in  their  home  countries  are  not  mentioned. 
But  we  have  before  us  the  Russian  model — also  Lenine's 
instructions  to  the  Communists  of  America,  Italy  and 
other  countries. 

But  even  such  visiting  delegations  would  not  be  nec- 
essary. The  wireless  and  the  mails  would  be  working 
and  there  are  now  enough  of  Bolshevists  in  all  countries 
to  spread  the  glad  news  and,  where  feasible,  to  organize 


158  SOVIETISM 

revolt — or  at  least  to  keep  going  "the  revolutionary 
class-struggle"  which  is  to  prepare  the  way. 

We  have  the  word  of  one  of  the  Soviet  dictators  as 
to  this  part  of  the  "peace"  plan.  (See  the  following 
chapter.) 

Compromising  with  Bolshevism. — Pro-Bolshevists  are 
constantly  proposing  various  compromises  with  the 
Soviets  with  the  idea  of  moderating  them.  Yet  each  con- 
cession made  is  interpreted  by  them  as  a  victory  and 
adds  to  their  aggressiveness.  So,  at  the  1920  Soviet 
Congress,  Lenine  spoke  of  the  Entente  decision  to  cease 
all  intervention,  as  having  been  based  exclusively  on  the 
Soviets '  military  power  and  ability  to  create  mutinies  in 
the  Entente  armies: 

"For  thinking  that  the  workers  and  soldiers  ex- 
ploited by  international  capital  would  manifest  their 
sympathy  for  us  in  the  long  run  we  have  been  ac- 
cused of  being  Utopians.  Experience  has  shown, 
indeed,  that  we  cannot  always  depend  upon  the 
action  of  the  proletariat  abroad.  Still,  thanks  to 
the  true  class  instinct  of  the  workers  and  the 
peasants  in  the  Entente  armies,  the  British  and 
French  were  compelled  to  withdraw  their  troops. 
This  was  our  greatest  victory  over  them.  Against 
the  infinite  military  and  technical  superiority  of  our 
enemies  we  placed  the  solidarity  of  labor  and  we 
won.  Our  enemies  shout  about  democracy,  but  not 
in  a  single  Parliament  have  they  dared  to  say  that 
they  have  declared  war  on  Soviet  Russia." 

So,  also,  the  Esthonian  peace  was  spoken  of  as  a  sec* 
ond  great  victory,  proving  that  the  Esths  had  recognized 
that  the  Entente  was  worse  than  the  Soviets,  while  the 
sympathy  expressed  by   certain  French,   British,   and 


THE  PRO-BOLSHEVISTS  159 

American  "intellectuals"  is  taken  as  a  third  great  vic- 
tory, leading  Lenine  to  the  conclusion  that  even  "the 
least  educated  bourgeois"  were  transferring  their  sym- 
pathies to  the  Soviets. 

"Will  concessions — invariably  regarded  as  victories — 
increase  the  probability  of  Bolshevism  yielding  to 
democracy,  or  will  they  increase  Bolshevist  confidence 
and  aggressiveness?" — this  is  the  question. 

In  this  same  Congress  the  only  effective  argument 
offered  against  Bolshevist  despotism  was  that  of  the 
Social  Democrat  (Menshevik)  leader,  Martoff,  that 
the  foreign  powers  would  never  recognize  an  anti-dem- 
ocratic Russia.  What  argument  will  Russian  demo- 
crats have  with  which  they  can  overthrow  Bolshevism 
if  other  nations  begin  to  yield  to  the  Soviet  dictator- 
ship? 

Let  us  consider  the  present  Communist  diplomacy: 
Momentarily  the  Soviets  have  gained  all  they  can  by 
military  efforts — until  they  have  time  to  recuperate. 
In  the  meanwhile  they  hold  a  great  people  as  hostages, 
and  vast  natural  resources  and  trade  routes  with  which 
to  negotiate.  But  it  would  be  a  gross  error  to  suppose 
that  their  diplomacy  is  conventional  or  that  their  simple 
aim  is  to  increase  their  economic  and  military  strength. 
It  has  become  generally  understood  at  last  that  they 
know  that  their  future  depends  upon  other  countries, 
and  that  besides  ' '  the  propaganda  of  the  word ' '  there  is 
"the  propaganda  of  the  deed,"  that  is,  the  very  existence 
of  the  friendly  Soviet  regime  encourages  the  revolution- 
ists of  other  countries  to  revolt — both  because  they  know 
they  can  count  sooner  or  later  on  direct  or  indirect  aid 
from  Russia  and  because  they  see  the  thing  can  be  done. 

But  even  this  is  not  the  bottom  of  the  Soviet  diplo- 


160  SOVIETISM 

macy.  What  the  Bolshevists  are  striving  .for  now  is 
not  merely  the  prestige  and  the  encouragement  to  other 
revolutions  that  would  come  from  recognition  by  other 
governments  but  for  concessions  by  capitalism  to  com- 
munism. For  this  is  precisely  how  all  compromises 
will  be  viewed  not  only  in  Russia  but  by  the  millions 
of  admiring  pro-Bolshevists  in  all  countries.  They  will 
claim — with  every  plausibility — that  capitalism  has 
recognized  communism  as  a  permanent  regime.  As  we 
read  in  "Soviet  Russia"  (March  27,  1920) : 

"Many  people  have  thoughtlessly  said  that  the 
Soviet  system  and  the  capitalist  system  cannot 
exist  side  by  side.  The  answer  is  that  they  do 
exist,  and  that  they  will  continue  to  exist  for  a 
long  time,  until  one  or  the  other  disappears  from 
history.  As  long  as  they  do  exist  side  by  side, 
mutual  concessions  are  necessary." 

Yet  "the  will  to  believe"  persists  even  in  some  un- 
questioned anti-Bolshevik  quarters.  Though  the  Soviets' 
activities  have  not  only  been  accompamed  by  an  amaz- 
ing propaganda  of  falsehood  but  have  consisted  largely 
in  this  propaganda,  it  is  still  held  by  many  that  they 
may  be  rapidly  and  marvelously  transformed  into  an 
honest  regime.  Though  their  foreign  policy  has  been 
based  consistently  and  exclusively  upon  a  diplomacy 
openly  as  hostile  to  all  other  governments  as  that  of 
Prussia  formerly  was,  and  at  times  as  secret,  we  are 
told  that  there  is  a  reasonable  chance,  yes,  even  a  proba- 
bility that  they  may  change  all  this  and  become  relia- 
ble! Editors  who  refused  absolutely  to  trust  the  obvi- 
ously far  less  fanatical  Germans  are  now  suggesting 
calmly  that  we  may  soon  be  able  to  trust  the  Bolsheviki ! 


THE  PRO-BOLSHEVISTS  161 

A1  conservative  New  York  paper — one  of  the  most  in- 
fluential in  the  country — furnishes  an  example.    It  says : 

"Testifying  before  a  Senate  committee  at  Wash- 
ington, Mr.  Martens,  representing  himself  as  the 
Ambassador  of  Soviet  Russia  to  the  United  States, 
boasted  that  his  government,  now  'strong  enough 
to  fight  the  world/  has  abandoned  the  idea  that  it 
could  be  maintained  only  by  undermining  and  de- 
stroying other  governments.  Thus  happily  situated, 
the  Soviet  Republic,  he  says,  does  not  care  'at  pres- 
ent' what  kind  of  government  other  people  have. 

"There  is  virtue  in  the  words  'at  present.'  If 
Mr.  Martens  tells  the  truth,  the  somersault  executed 
by  Lenine  and  Trotzky  in  their  foreign  policy  is 
spectacular  .  .  . 

"Assuming  that  Mr.  Martens'  use  of  the  phrase 
'at  present'  indicates  something  more  than  a  temr 
porary  concession,  it  is  possible  that  in  time  it  may 
be  accepted  as  warranting  recognition  of  a  regime 
that  undertook  at  first  to  run  amuck  with  its  Red 
outlawry,  now  an  admitted  failure. 

"No  other  nation  is  attempting  to  deprive  the 
Russians  of  a  government  of  their  own  choice. 
Cured  of  its  criminal  propensities,  the  Lenine  re- 
public might  easily  be  tolerated  abroad  as  long  as 
it  shall  be  at  home." 

There  is  surely  nothing  in  the  proven  character  or 
the  performances  of  the  Bolsheviki  that  would  justify 
either  the  assumption  that  they  will  cure  themselves  of 
their  "criminal  propensities"  or  that  they  will  abandon 
their  movement,  which  is  a  propaganda  and  fanatical 
sectarian  movement  through  and  through — especially 
after  it  will  have  received  full  political  recognition  and 
a  sufficient  measure  of  economic  assistance. 

There  is  no  danger  that  the  conservative  elements 


162  SOVIETISM 

which  express  such  views  will  become  pro-Bolshevists 
at  heart.  But  many  of  them  are  lining  up  shoulder  to 
shoulder  with  the  pro-Bolshevists  as  to  the  one  matter 
in  regard  to  which  opinion  outside  of  Russia  counts  the 
most — the  relation  of  other  governments  to  the  Soviets — 
being  possibly  moved  thereto  by  some  of  the  motives  sug- 
gested at  the  beginning  of  this  chapter. 


PART  III 
SOVIETISM  OUTSIDE  OF  RUSSIA 


CHAPTER  XVI 

THE    SOVIETS'   PLANS   FOR  WORLD 
REVOLUTION* 

That  the  Soviet  Government  of  Russia  will  never  be 
content  merely  to  reign  supreme  over  Russian  territory, 
but  must  develop  an  intensely  aggressive  foreign  policy 
backed  by  force  of  arms,  aiming  to  impose  its  own  system 
on  other  nations,  can  be  abundantly  proven  from  the 
public  pronouncements  of  its  leaders  and  highest  of- 
ficials. 

Nicholas  Lenine  and  others  now  dominating  the  Rus- 
sian Soviet  Government,  have  frankly  and  repeatedly 
announced,  both  in  the  years  before  they  attained  their 
present  power  and  after,  that  their  ultimate  aim  is  to 
force  the  world  into  one  great  International  Communist 
Republic,  wiping  out  all  national  boundaries.  Prelim- 
inary to  this,  all  existing  "capitalistic,"  that  is  to  say, 
non-Communist,  governments  in  the  world  must  be  over- 
thrown. The  government  of  the  United  States  is  fre- 
quently specifically  mentioned. 

Road  to  International  Dictatorship. — This  dominant 
idea  of  provoking  international  revolution  throughout 
the  world  in  order  to  establish  a  universal  Communist 
government  was  already  clearly  developed  in  the  group 

*  The  documents  in  the  first  part  of  this  chapter  were  col- 
lected and  published  by  The  Christian  Science  Monitor,  and 
are  used — together  with  some  of  the  comment — with  consent. 

165 


166  SOVIETISM 

of  Bolsheviki,  which  afterward  came  to  power  in  Rus- 
sia, when  it  took  part  in  the  famous  Zimmerwald  con- 
ference in  Switzerland  in  1915. 

The  book  written  by  Zinoviev  and  Lenine,  "Against 
the  Current,"  published  at  Petrograd  in  1918,  says: 

"The  chief  task  which  we  set  ourselves  at  the 
very  beginning  of  the  war  was  to  turn  the  imper- 
ialistic war  into  a  civil  war."  And  further:  "In 
the  discussions  (at  Zimmerwald  in  1915)  regarding 
the  question — What  would  the  proletariat  party  do 
if  a  revolution  were  to  put  it  in  power  during  the 
present  war? — we  (i.e.,  Lenine  and  Zinoviev)  re- 
plied :  '  We  would  offer  peace  to  all  combatants  on 
the  basis  of  the  liberation  of  the  colonies  and  of  all 
dependent,  downtrodden  and  subject  races.  Neither 
Germany  nor  France  nor  England  would  accept 
these  terms  under  their  present  governments.  We 
would  then  prepare  to  carry  out  in  full  by  the  most 
decisive  measures  our  minimum  program,  and  also 
systematically  to  stir  up  revolt  among  all  the  peoples 
at  present  oppressed  by  the  great  Russians,  amongst 
the  colonies  and  dependent  countries  of  Asia,  India, 
China,  Persia,  and  so  on,  and  also,  above  all,  to 
call  to  arms  the  Socialist  proletariat  of  Europe 
against  their  governments  and  in  spite  of  their 
Chauvinist  Socialists.'  There  is  no  doubt  that  the 
victory  of  the  proletariat  in  Russia  would  create 
exceptionally  favorable  conditions  for  the  develop- 
ment of  revolution  both  in  Asia  and  Europe. ' ' 

Lenine  and  Zinoviev  seized  the  power  while  the  war 
against  Germany  was  still  being  fought,  and  their  ac- 
tions at  the  head  of  the  Soviet  Government  followed  ex- 
actly the  lines  laid  down  by  them  for  themselves  in 
1915.  Peace  was  offered  to  all  combatants  as  they  had 
foretold  they  would  offer  it. 


SOVIETISM  OUTSIDE  OF  RUSSIA        167 

Their  hypocritical  move  for  peace  was  unsuccessful, 
as  they  had  foreseen  it  would  be,  and  they  then  went 
on  to  the  next  step  in  their  carefully  matured  plans. 
They  made  a  separate  peace  with  Germany.  Immedi- 
ately following  it,  in  the  natural  and  inevitable  sequence 
of  their  carefully  prepared  program,  they  attempted 
to  combine  with  the  Bolshevist  elements  in  Germany 
through  their  "ambassador"  in  Berlin.  This  attempt 
resulted  in  Mr.  Joffe's  expulsion  from  Berlin. 

A  Revolutionary  Offensive. — The  Bolshevist  Foreign 
Minister,  Tchitcherin,  said  in  his  report  to  the  fifth  So- 
viet congress  held  in  Moscow  in  July,  1918: 

"The  basis  of  our  foreign  policy  since  the  end 
of  1917  and  the  beginning  of  1918  has  been  a  revo- 
lutionary offensive." 

Lenine's  "Theses"  made  to  explain  why  he  favored 
making  peace  with  Germany : 

"There  is  no  doubt  that  the  revolution  must  and 
shall  break  out  in  Europe.  All  our  hope  in  a  de- 
cisive victory  of  Socialism  is  based  on  this  con- 
viction, on  this  scientific  hypothesis." 

The  program  of  the  Russian  Bolsheviki  not  only  aims 
at  international  revolution  which  is  to  be  fostered  and 
encouraged  from  Moscow,  but  the  Bolsheviki  of  all  coun- 
tries hold  the  same  views  and  look  to  Moscow  for  en- 
couragement and  material  assistance. 

The  Soviet  Government  officially  put  itself  at  the  head 
of  the  International  Revolutionists  by  summoning  a 
gathering  of  representatives  of  violent  revolutionary 
Communist  parties  from  all  parts  of  the  world,  called 
the  Communist  International  or  the  Third  International, 


168  SOVIETISM 

to  meet  at  Moscow  in  the  spring  of  1919.  A  manifesto 
from  this  meeting  to  the  world  was  published  in  the 
Bolsheviki  newspaper,  "Severnaya  Communa,"  of 
March  8,  1919,  and  says: 

"We  Communists,  representatives  of  the  revolu- 
tionary proletariat  of  the  different  countries  of 
Europe,  America  and  Asia,  assembled  in  Soviet 
Moscow,  feel  and  consider  ourselves  followers  and 
fulfillers  of  the  cause,  the  program  of  which  was 
proclaimed  72  years  ago.  .  .  .  It  is  our  task  now 
to  .  .  .  unite  the  efforts  of  all  revolutionary 
parties  of  the  world  proletariat  and  thus  facilitate 
and  hasten  the  victory  of  the  Communist  revolu- 
tion in  the  whole  world." 

"In  all  countries  where  the  toiling  masses  live 
and  are  conscious,  Soviets  of  workmen's,  soldiers', 
and  peasants'  deputies  are  being  established  and 
will  be  established.  The  most  important  task  at  the 
present  moment  for  the  conscious  and  honorable 
workmen  of  all  countries  is  to  strengthen  the  Soviets, 
to  increase  their  authority,  and  to  imitate  the  gov- 
ernmental apparatus  of  Russia.  .  .  .  By  means  of 
the  Soviets  the  working  class  will  direct  all  branches 
of  the  economic  and  cultural  life  of  the  country 
just  as  this  is  taking  place  at  the  present  moment 
in  Russia." 

Instruments  of  Revolution. — In  his  book,  "Russia  in 
1919,"  on  pages  118  and  119,  Arthur  Ransome,  an  Eng- 
lish journalist  who  has  enjoyed  Nicholas  Lenine's  friend- 
ship and  confidence,  quotes  an  interview  in  which  Lenine 
said: 

"Strikes  and  Soviets.  If  these  two  habits  once 
get  hold,  nothing  will  keep  the  workmen  from 
them.     And  Soviets  once  started  must  sooner  or 


SOVIETISM  OUTSIDE  OF  RUSSIA         169 

later  come  to  supreme  power.  ...  In  the  be- 
ginning I  thought  they  were  and  would  remain  a 
purely  Russian  form ;  but  it  is  now  quite  clear  that 
under  various  names  they  must  be  the  instruments 
of  revolution  everywhere." 

Platform  of  Third  International. — What  the  Russian 
Bolsheviki  under  Nicholas  Lenine  and  Leon  Trotzky 
have  done  in  Russia  must  also  be  brought  to  pass  in  all 
the  other  countries  of  the  world — that  is  the  dominant 
idea  of  the  Third  International,  summoned  by  the  of- 
ficial Russian  Soviet  Government  and  held  under  its 
auspices  in  the  Kremlin  at  Moscow,  its  "White  House 
and  Capitol  combined.  The  platform  of  this  Communist 
or  Third  International,  published  in  the  Moscow  "Iz- 
vestia,"  the  official  organ  of  the  Soviet  Government, 
brings  the  working  class  forward  as  the  sole  savior  of 
mankind — ^not  the  genuine  working  class  as  we  know  it, 
but  a  working  class  cajoled  and  bullied  by  the  men  and 
the  ideas  of  the  Moscow  ruling  group  and  the  Third 
International. 

Sovietizing  the  World. — The  first  step  in  this  inter- 
national movement  to  sovietize  the  whole  world  will  be 
as  follows : 

The  platform  declares  that  the  revolutionary  prole- 
tarian movements  cannot  work  in  isolation  but  must  rely 
one  upon  the  other  for  support  and  assistance.  Now 
the  Russian  group  is  the  only  one  of  these  groups  that 
has  been  able  to  obtain  permanent  control  of  any 
nation's  economic,  financial,  and  military  resources. 
Therefore  this  Russian  group — or  in  other  words,  the 
Moscow  Soviet  Government — in  the  natural  course  of 
events  and  in  the  natural  distribution  of  power  and 
leadership  based  on  actual  resources,  must  take  the  ini- 


170  SOVIETISM 

tiative  and  assist  all  the  other  groups  scattered  over  the 
entire  globe: 

"The  International  that  will  be  able  to  sub- 
ordinate so-called  national  interests  to  the  interest 
of  world  revolution  will,  by  this  very  reason, 
realize  mutual  assistance  between  proletariats  of 
various  countries,  for  without  economic  and  other 
forms  of  mutual  support,  the  proletariat  will  not 
be  able  to  establish  the  new  society." 

"The  proletariat  must  defend  itself  at  any  cost. 
The  Communist  International  calls  on  the  entire 
proletariat  of  the  world  to  take  part  in  this  last 
struggle.  Arms  against  arms !  Force  against  force ! 
Down  with  the  imperialistic  conspiracy  of  Capital! 
Long  live  the  International  Republic  of  Proletarian 
Soviets!" 

Attitude  to  United  States. — One  of  the  state  docu- 
ments of  the  Commissariat  of  Foreign  Affairs  of  the 
Moscow  Government  is  a  formal  note  to  President  "Wil- 
son from  the  Soviet  Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs,  Mr. 
Tchitcherin,  presented  to  the  Norwegian  Consul  at  Mos- 
cow for  transmission  on  October  24,  1918,  and  published 
in  the  American  radical  periodical,  Liberator,  Jan- 
uary, 1919. 

The  Soviet  Government  of  Russia  boldly  asserts  that 
it  is  assured  of  its  triumph  throughout  the  world.  Its 
Foreign  Minister  goes  on  to  say,  in  this  official  com- 
munication : 

"We  know  that  this  form  of  government  (i.  e., 
by  Councils  of  People's  Commissaries,  elected  by  a 
Congress  of  Soviets),  will  soon  be  the  general  form, 
and  that  a  general  peace,  when  nations  will  no  more 
be  threatened  with  defeat,  will  leave  them  free  to 
put  an  end  to  the  system  and  the  cliques  that  force 
upon  mankind  this  universal  slaughter,  and  which 


SOVIETISM  OUTSIDE  OF  RUSSIA        171 

will,  in  spite  of  themselves,  surely  lead  the  tortured 
peoples  to  create  Soviet  governments  that  give  exact 
expression  to  their  will." 

"We  propose,  therefore,  Mr.  President,  that  the 
League  of  Nations  be  based  on  the  expropriation  of 
the  capitalists  of  all  countries.  In  your  country, 
Mr.  President,  the  banks  and  the  industries  are 
in  the  hands  of  such  a  small  group  of  capitalists 
that,  as  your  personal  friend,  Col.  Raymond  Rob- 
ins, assured  us,  the  arrest  of  20  heads  of  capitalistic 
cliques  and  the  transfer  of  the  control,  which  by 
characteristic  capitalistic  methods  they  have  come 
to  possess,  into  the  hands  of  the  masses  of  the  world 
is  all  that  would  be  required  to  destroy  the  principal 
course  of  new  wars." 

"However,  Mr.  President,  since  we  do  not  at  all 
desire  to  wage  war  against  the  United  States,  even 
though  your  government  has  not  yet  been  replaced 
by  a  council  of  people's  commissaries  and  your 
post  is  not  yet  taken  by  Eugene  Debs,  whom  you 
have  imprisoned ;  since  we  do  not  all  desire  to  wage 
war  against  England,  even  though  the  Cabinet  of 
Mr.  Lloyd  George  has  not  yet  been  replaced  by  a 
council  of  people's  commissaries  with  MacLean  at 
its  head ;  since  we  have  no  desire  to  wage  war  against 
France,  even  though  the  capitalist  government  of 
Clemenceau  has  not  yet  been  replaced  by  a  work- 
men 's  government  of  Merheim ;  just  as  we  have  con- 
cluded peace  with  the  imperialistic  government  of 
Germany,  with  Emperor  William  at  its  head,  from 
whom  you,  Mr.  President,  feel  yourself  as  alien  as 
we,  the  workmen's  and  peasants'  revolutionary  gov- 
ernment, feel  ourselves  from  you — we  finally  pro- 
pose to  you,  Mr.  President,  that  you  take  up  with 
your  allies  the  following  questions  and  give  us  con- 
cise and  definite  replies." 

Letter  to  American  Labor. — On  August  20,  1918,  the 
Soviet  dictator  addressed  an  open  letter  to  American 


172  SOVIETISM 

working-men.  In  this  letter,  Lenine  openly  incites  the 
American  workmen  to  revolt  against  the  present  Amer- 
ican Government  to  establish  Soviet  Government  in 
the  United  States,  and  indorses  the  presidential  boom 
of  Tchitcherin 's  candidate  for  the  American  presi- 
dency : 

' '  The  American  working  class  will  not  follow  the 
lead  of  its  bourgeoisie.  It  will  go  with  us  against 
the  bourgeoisie.  The  whole  history  of  the  American 
people  gives  me  this  confidence,  this  conviction. 
I  recall  with  pride  the  words  of  one  of  the  best 
loved  leaders  of  the  American  proletariat,  Eugene 
V.  Debs,  who  said  in  the  Appeal  to  Reason  at  the 
end  of  1915,  when  it  was  still  a  Socialist  paper,  in 
an  article  entitled  'Why  Should  I  Fight?'  that  he 
would  rather  be  shot  than  vote  for  war  credits  to 
support  the  present  criminal  and  reactionary  war, 
that  he  knows  only  one  war  that  is  sanctified  and 
justified  from  the  standpoint  of  the  proletariat; 
the  war  against  the  capitalist  class;  the  war  for 
the  liberation  of  mankind  from  wage  slavery. 
I  am  not  surprised  that  this  fearless  man  was 
thrown  into  prison  by  the  American  bourgeoisie." 

Lenine  goes  on  to  express  his  confidence  that  the  doc- 
trines his  government  embodies  will  triumph  through- 
out the  world,  including  the  United  States: 

"We  realize  that  the  mad  resistance  of  the  bour- 
geoisie against  the  Socialist  revolution  in  all  coun- 
tries is  unavoidable.  .  .  .  We  know  that  it  may 
take  a  long  time  before  help  can  come  from  you, 
comrades,  American  workingmen,  for  the  develop- 
ment of  the  revolution  in  the  different  countries 
proceeds  along  various  paths,  with  varying  rapidity. 
How  could  it  be  otherwise!  We  know  full  well 
that  the  outbreak  of  the  European  proletarian  rev- 


SOVIETISM  OUTSIDE  OP  RUSSIA        173 

olution  may  take  many  weeks  to  come,  quickly  as  it 
is  ripening  in  these  days." 

And  again  here  we  find,  in  Lenine's  message  to  Amer- 
ican workingmen,  the  key-note  of  the  Soviet  Govern- 
ment's foreign  policy: 

"We  are  counting  on  the  inevitability  of  the  in- 
ternational revolution." 

"We  are  in  a  beleaguered  fortress  so  long  as  no 
other  international  Socialist  revolution  comes  to  our 
assistance  with  its  armies.  Workingmen  the  world 
over  are  breaking  with  their  betrayers,  with  their 
Gompers  and  their  Scheidemanns.  Inevitably  Labor 
is  approaching  Communistic  Bolshevistic  tactics, 
is  preparing  for  the  proletarian  revolution  that 
alone  is  capable  of  preserving  culture  and  humanity 
from  destruction.  We  are  invincible,  for  invincible 
is  the  proletarian  revolution." 

In  a  second  and  later  letter,  to  the  workmen  of  Europe 
and  America,  published  in  the  official  organ  of  the  Soviet 
Government,  the  Moscow  '"Izvestia,"  of  January  24, 
1919,  Lenine  rejoices  in  the  progress  of  the  international 
revolution: 

"Comrades,  at  the  end  of  my  letter  to  American 
workmen  of  August  20,  1918,  I  wrote  that  we 
would  be  in  a  beleaguered  fortress  so  long  as  the 
other  armies  of  the  international  Socialist  revolu- 
tion did  not  come  to  our  assistance.  The  workmen 
are  breaking  off  from  their  Socialist  traitors,  the 
Hendersons  and  Renaudels,  I  added.  The  workmen 
are  gradually  but  surely  approaching  Communism 
and  Bolshevist  tactics. 

1 '  Since  I  wrote  these  words,  less  than  five  months 
have  passed  and  one  can  see  that  the  international 
proletarian  revolution  has  developed,  in  connection 


174  SOVIETISM 

with  the  passing  of  workmen  of  various  countries 
to  Communism  and  Bolshevism,  which  has  taken 
place  very  rapidly  during  this  period.   .    .    .  " 

Soviet  Movements  Progress. — "At  that  time, 
August  20,  1918,  the  proletariat  revolution  had 
taken  place  only  in  Russia  and  the  'soviet  author- 
ity,' that  is,  the  possession  of  all  authority  in  the 
state  by  Soviets  of  Workmen's,  Soldiers'  and 
Peasants'  Deputies,  seemed  to  be  and  in  fact 
was  an  exclusively  Russian  institution.  Now, 
January  12,  1919,  we  see  the  powerful  'soviet' 
movement,  not  only  in  parts  of  the  former  empire 
of  the  Czar,  for  example  in  Lithuania,  Poland,  and 
the  Ukraine,  but  also  in  western  European  countries 
and  in  neutral  countries  (Switzerland,  Holland  and 
Norway),  and  in  countries  that  have  suffered  from 
the  war  (Austria,  Germany).  The  revolution  in 
Germany,  which  is  particularly  important  and  char- 
acteristic as  one  of  the  most  progressive  capitalistic 
countries,  immediately  assumed  'soviet'  forms. 

"The  choice  is  between  'the  soviet  authority'  or  a 
bourgeois  parliament,  under  whatever  different 
names  the  latter  may  appear — such  as  'National' 
or  'Constituent  Assembly.' 

"In  the  same  manner  the  question  has  been  for- 
mulated historically  for  the  whole  world.  Now  it 
is  possible  and  in  fact  necessary  to  say  without  any 
exaggeration:  'The  soviet  authority  is  the  second 
world-wide,  historical  step  or  stage  of  development 
for  the  dictatorship  of  the  proletariat. '  ' ' 

The  Black  Internationale  vs.  the  League  of  Na- 
tions.— The  close  connection  between  the  Communist 
Party  in  Russia  and  the  other  Communist  parties 
throughout  the  world  is  clearly  demonstrated  when 
Zinoviev,  the  president  of  the  Petrograd  Soviet  and  dic- 
tator of  the  group  of  Soviets  known  as  the  Northern 
Commune,  acts  as  the  president  of  the  executive  com- 


SOVIETISM  OUTSIDE  OP  RUSSIA         175 

mittee  of  the  Communist  International,  and  sends  out 
a  broadcast  appeal  to  the  workingmen  of  other  nations, 
calling  it  a  ' '  Protest  against  the  Versailles  Peace, ' '  dated 
May  13,  1919,  and  published  in  the  Bolshevist  Petrograd 
newspaper  "Pravda,"  on  May  14,  1919: 

"Workmen  of  France!  Workmen  of  England! 
Workmen  of  America !  Workmen  of  Italy !  The 
Communist  International  appeals  to  you.  The  fate 
of  tens  of  millions  of  workmen  in  Germany  and 
Austria  now  depends  first  of  all  on  you.  You  should 
now  say  your  word.  You  must  take  from  the  bloody 
hands  of  your  governments  that  brigand's  knife 
which  they  hold  over  the  head  of  the  workmen  of 
Germany  and  Austria.   .    .    . 

"Workmen  of  Germany!  Workmen  of  Austria! 
You  see  now  that  you  have  only  one  choice,  to  over- 
throw immediately  the  government  of  traitors,  who 
call  themselves  Social  Democrats  but  who  are  in  fact 
the  corrupt  agents  of  the  bourgeoisie.  You  see  now 
to  what  the  policy  of  Scheidemann  and  Noske  has 
brought  you.  You  see  that  your  only  hope  is  a  war, 
a  proletarian  revolution.   .    .    . 

"  'World  proletarian  revolution' — the  only  sal- 
vation for  the  oppressed  classes  of  the  whole 
world.  'Dictatorship  of  the  proletariat  and  the 
establishment  of  a  soviet  authority' — the  only  con- 
clusion to  be  drawn  by  the  proletarians  of  the 
whole  world  from  the  Versailles  lesson." 

The  Soviet  Government  at  Moscow  is  actually  extend- 
ing encouragement  to  all  Communist  revolutionaries 
throughout  the  world.  It  also  has  clearly  stated  that 
the  hope  of  the  revolutionaries  in  all  countries  lies  in 
the  Soviet  Government  at  Moscow,  which  alone  can 
liberate  them,  because  it  alone  has  an  army.  This  army 
is  the  hope  of  the  world  revolution.    A  wireless  message 


176  SOVIETISM 

sent  out  by  the  Bolshevist  Government  was  intercepted 

September  30,  1919. 

"Tashkent,  September  22. 
To  Moscow;  to  The  Commissary  for  Foreign  Af- 
fairs, for  the  Revolutionary  Proletariat  of  the  East 
.  .  .  Turkey,   India,   Persia,   Afghanistan,    Khiva, 
Bokhara,  China,  and  to  all. 

1 '  The  second  regional  conference  of  Mohammedan 
Communists  of  Turkestan,  which  took  place  in  Tash- 
kent, sends  you  on  behalf  of  the  10,000,000  Moham- 
medan population  of  Turkestan  its  fraternal  greet- 
ings. .  .  .  The  Socialistic  revolutionary  move- 
ment is  growing  daily  in  the  west  and  has  now  en- 
veloped the  whole  world.  The  impressive  strike 
of  workmen  in  England  and  America  and  the  rev- 
olutionary movement  in  all  European  countries 
points  to  the  fact  that  the  fate  of  world  impe- 
rialism is  sealed.  The  .  .  .  republics  are  in- 
creasing daily  and  the  Red  Soviet  troops  are 
triumphing  over  the  imperialistic  executioners. 
.  .  .  The  revolutionary  movement  is  also  rapidly 
spreading  in  the  East.   .    .    ." 

The  Bolshevist  Commissary  for  Foreign  Affairs, 
Tchitcherin,  admits  the  reliance  that  the  Soviet  Govern- 
ment places  in  its  Red  Army  to  back  up  its  foreign 
policy.  A  signed  article  by  him,  printed  in  the  Moscow 
"Izvestia"  of  February  23,  1919,  says: 

"Our  glorious  revolutionary  Red  Army  is  such  a 
powerful  factor  in  the  foreign  policy  of  Soviet 
Russia  that  even  the  loudest  praises  are  not  to  be 
considered  as  exaggerated  in  defining  its  role  in  this 
respect.  .  .  .  Every  military  success  won  by  us 
is  immediately  reflected  in  our  foreign  policy.  .  .  . 
In  the  very  foreground,  at  the  front  of  the  stage, 
as  the  leading  force  standing  in  the  very  center  of 
the  historical  development  of  Soviet  Russia,  are  the 
ranks  of  those  who  by  their  heroic  acts  and  by  death 


SOVIETISM  OUTSIDE  OF  RUSSIA        177 

oti  the  field  of  battle,  fight  for  the  world  fortunes 
of  Soviet  Russia,  on  whose  valor  and  revolutionary 
consciousness  has  been  built  that  force  which  in 
further  developments  will  bring  other  countries, 
one  by  one,  into  the  circle  of  the  revolutionary 
world  conflagration.  In  our  foreign  policy,  that  is, 
in  the  historic  role  of  Soviet  Russia  in  the  world 
arena,  one  of  the  fundamental  factors,  one  of  the 
most  powerful  forces  of  its  historic  activity,  is 
the  flower  and  pride  of  Soviet  Russia — our  own 
heroic  Red  Army." 

Open  War  on  the  World. — The  masses  of  the  Rus- 
sian population  are  being  constantly  educated  by 
the  Soviet  Government  to  believe  in  their  mission, 
under  its  guidance  and  tutelage,  and  in  strict  military 
obedience,  to  bring  about  the  victory  of  its  Com- 
munistic doctrine  throughout  the  world  by  force 
of  arms,  perhaps  even  as  a  new  kind  of  militaristic 
imperialism.  For  example,  the  Petrograd  Bolshevist 
newspaper,  ' '  Pravda, ' '  in  its  issue  of  so  recent  a  date  as 
November  5,  1919,  reprinted  the  campaign  slogans  of 
the  Petrograd  committee  of  the  Communist  Party  for 
the  October  celebrations  in  honor  of  the  second  anniver- 
sary of  its  accession  to  power.    The  seventh  slogan  was : 

Victory  for  1920  Predicted.— "  In  1919  was  born  the 
Communist  International — in  1920  it  will  triumph  in  the 
whole  world." 

And  what  will  bring  to  pass  this  triumph,  in  which 
the  ignorant  but  obedient  masses  of  the  Russian  people 
are  daily  and  hourly  taught  to  believe?  The  armed 
force  of  the  Soviet  military  power !  The  fifteenth  slogan 
was: 


178  SOVIETISM 

"During  two  years  we  created  the  Red  Army  of 
several  millions.    Long  live  the  Red  Fighters!" 

Their  enemies  at  home  have  been  crushed  by  the  Red 
Terror  and  they  are  in  a  fair  way  to  overcome  the  Rus- 
sian anti-Bolshevist  movements  on  the  Russian  territory 
around  them.  They  look  across  the  frontiers  at  Europe, 
struggling  in  the  throes  of  manifold  difficulties,  and 
are  of  high  hope.  The  leading  editorial  of  the  Com- 
munist organ  "Pravda"  in  Moscow,  in  its  issue  of  only 
a  short  time  ago,  November  19,  1919,  says: 

1 !  Bourgeois  Europe  is  freezing  and  starving.  The 
powerful  waves  of  the  proletarian  revolution  roll 
higher  and  higher  every  day." 

As  late  as  February  3  insidious  propaganda,  designed 
to  promote  class  antagonism,  was  circulated  by  wireless 
from  Moscow. 

In  the  messages  sent  broadcast  by  the  Bolshevist 
authorities  on  that  date  the  Esthonian  peace  arrange- 
ment was  characterized  as  being  the  opening  wedge  in 
the  "diplomatic  blockade"  of  the  world's  bourgeoisie 
against  the  Soviets. 

A  wireless  message  sent  out  from  Moscow  on  Decem- 
ber 6  gave  the  text  of  a  speech  by  Lenine  to  the  Seventh 
All-Russian  Congress  of  Soviets.  In  his  speech  Lenine 
said: 

"We  have  played  for  an  international  revolution 
and  have  been  successful.  In  spite  of  the  fact  that 
we  are  much  weaker  than  the  Entente  we  have  suc- 
ceeded in  winning  a  great  victory. 

"In  our  fight  against  the  Entente  we  have  won 
three  victories.  Though  the  Entente  has  tried  to 
crush  us  by  its  technical  knowledge  and  by  its 


SOVIETISM  OUTSIDE  OF  RUSSIA        179 

armies  we  have  succeeded  in  making  it  impossible 
for  its  troops  to  fight  against  us.  'The  germ  of 
Bolshevism*  has  penetrated  their  army,  which  was 
formed  of  workmen  and  peasants. 

' '  The  second  attempt  of  the  Entente,  the  attempt 
to  turn  fourteen  states  against  Soviet  Russia,  the 
attempt  to  force  these  small  States,  with  their  bour- 
geois governments,  to  fight  against  Soviet  Russia, 
ended  also  in  the  failure  of  the  Entente. 

"Our  third  victory  is  that  the  small  bourgeoisie 
and  the  intellectuals  of  the  Entente  are  on  our 
side.  The  Entente  dares  not  declare  war  on  us 
openly  in  its  Parliaments." 

The  message  containing  Lenine's  speech  was  followed 
on  December  9  by  another  wireless,  stating  that  a  reso- 
lution was  unanimously  passed  expressing  the  entire 
approval  of  the  speech  by  the  All-Russdan  Central 
'Executive  Committee,  the  Soviet  of  People's  Commis- 
saries, and  the  Seventh  Congress  of  Soviets. 

That  such  propaganda  will  continue  to  be  made  and 
that  the  principle  of  bringing  about  world  revolution 
is  one  of  the  fundamental  doctrines  of  the  Soviet  State 
was  clearly  indicated  in  a  signed  article  by  A.  Joffe, 
who  represented  the  Soviet  Government  in  a  diplomatic 
capacity  in  Berlin  after  the  signing  of  the  Brest-Litovsk 
peace.  The  Joffe  article  appeared  in  the  Pravda,  the 
official  organ  of  the  Petrograd  Committee  of  the  Russian 
Communist  Party,  on  November  7,  1919.  In  it  Joffe 
said: 

"The  Russian  revolution  will  conquer  as  an  in- 
ternational revolution.  Otherwise  it  will  perish. 
From  the  very  first  day  of  the  Socialist  revolution 
in  Russia  this  became  its  slogan,  and  this  truth 
has  determined  the  whole  international  policy  ol 
the  Soviet  authority." 


180  SOVIETISM 

In  another  paragraph  the  article  stated:  \ 

"Under  the  new  circumstances,  the  Russian  rev- 
olution was  obliged  to  go  under  ground.  The  open 
revolutionizing  of  the  proletarian  masses  of  Western 
Europe  and  America  became  impossible.  This  work 
had  to  be  carried  on  illegally  and  conspiratively, 
and  the  only  openly  revolutionizing  factor  re- 
mained the  fact  itself  of  the  existence  of  the  only 
socialistic  workmen 's-peasants'  republic  in  the 
world." 

In  the  hearings  before  the  United  States  Senate  Com- 
mittee, "Ambassador"  Martens  justified  the  revolution- 
ary propaganda  of  Lenine  in  America.  The  Senate 
counsel,  Mr.  Ellis,  produced  a  letter  signed  by  Lenine, 
Soviet  Premier,  dated  in  January,  1919,  urging  Ameri- 
can workingmen  to  establish  a  soviet  government  and 
"overthrow"  reactionary  labor  leaders  "like  Gompers," 
and  also  overthrow  "bourgeois  parliaments." 

Martens  said  the  letter  did  not  come  through  him, 
but  added  that  "under  certain  circumstances  such  a 
letter  might  be  justified."  The  letter  was  "war  propa- 
ganda," he  said,  adding  that  "Russia  was  at  war  with 
all  powers  during  the  last  two  years." 

But  this  American  Soviet  agitation  was  initiated  in 
all  countries  within  reach,  absolutely  independently  of 
their  state  of  war  or  peace  with  the  Soviet  Government. 

The  Soviet  regime,  in  proportion  to  its  strength  and 
prestige,  automatically  propagates  world  revolution.  If 
propagandists  are  not  sent  out  then  wireless  messages 
are  sent  out.  If  propagandists  are  not  exported,  then 
propagandists  are  imported — and  these  pro-Bolshevist 
visitors  return  to  their  own  countries  as  "expert"  and 
"informed"  as  the  Bolshevists  themselves.    One  of  the 


SOVIETISM  OUTSIDE  OF  RUSSIA        181 

latest  and  most  important  examples  is  the  ultra-radical 
British  Socialist,  George  Lansbury,  editor  of  the  leading 
British  labor  organ,  the  Daily  Herald,  who  wired  from 
Russia  (in  March,  1920) : 

"Lenine  and, his  friends  are  convinced  that  the 
capitalist  system  can  only  be  removed  by  violent 
revolution.  The  Russians  ask  just  one  thing:  'Do 
you  want  to  establish  Socialism?  Is  the  aim  and 
goal  of  your  efforts  the  destruction  of  the  capitalist 
power  of  exploitation  ? '  They  think  their  partisans 
in  every  country  ought  to  work  together  for  the 
realization  of  this  object  by  every  means  possible." 

World  Disorder  as  the  Preparation  for  World  Re- 
volt.— The  Soviets  now  realize  that  the  prospects  for 
revolution  are  not  yet  good  in  America,  England,  and 
France.  Hence  they  favor  a  steadily  aggravated  series 
of  grave  disorders  as  the  best  preparation.  The  evi- 
dences of  this  policy  appear  daily. 

For  example,  in  a  message  dated  February  3,  1920, 
addressed  to  the  central  committee  of  the  Federation 
of  Postal,  Telegraph,  Telephone,  and  Wireless  Em- 
ployees in  France,  Germany,  England,  Italy,  and 
Sweden,  gratification  is  expressed  at  strike  attacks  at 
capitalism  made  in  their  countries.  In  this  message, 
signed  by  the  central  committee  of  the  All  Russian  Fed- 
eration of  Workmen  and  Employees  connected  with 
National  Communication  (viz.,  postal,  telegraph,  tele- 
phone, and  wireless),  it  is  stated  that  Russian  workmen 
follow  with  anxiety  the  labor  movement  abroad,  and  it 
is  added: 

"These  strikes  can  hardly  modify  in  a  capitalist 
society  the  painful  lot  of  strikers,  for  complete 
emancipation  from  the  economic  and  moral  yoke  of 


182  SOVIETISM 

the  Bourgeoisie  can  only  be  obtained  by  a  general 
insurrection  of  workmen  against  their  exploiters 
and  oy  meams  of  proletarian  dictatorship,  but  it  re- 
mains none  the  less  true  that  we  are  pleased  at  every 
one  of  these  attacks  which  graxvely  disorganize 
capitalism." 

Sovietism  in  the  Border  States. — There  is  little  ques- 
tion that  world-revolution  will  remain  the  guiding 
principle  of  Bolshevist  policy  even  through  peace  nego- 
tiations. There  is  not  the  slightest  question  that  Lenine 
is  counting  on  early  revolutions  in  all  the  border  states. 
For  example,  peace  has  already  been  made  with  one 
of  these  states.  But  in  an  address  to  the  Workers' 
Council  in  Moscow  Premier  Lenine,  alluding  to  this 
peace  made  with  Esthonia,  is  reported  to  have  said: 

"We  left  in  the  hands  of  Esthonia  districts  pop- 
ulated by  fully  as  many  Russians  as  Esthonians,  not 
being  ready  to  shed  the  blood  of  the  workers  and 
peasants  for  the  sake  of  some  strips  of  country 
which,  anyway,  are  not  definitely  lost. 

"Esthonia  is  passing  through  the  Kerensky 
period,  but  the  dawn  of  Soviet  rule  is  near.  Then 
there  will  be  quite  other  peace  terms." 

Bolshevist  Revolutionism  as  Taught  by  Lenine's 
Latest  Emissaries  in  Italy. — At  first  the  Bolshevist- 
Socialists  of  Italy  were  disposed  to  apply  immediately 
the  identical  methods  of  violence  used  in  Russia.  But 
Lenine's  emissaries  protested,  chiefly,  no  doubt,  because 
— as  he  said — immediate  European  revolutions  would 
impede  his  efforts  to  secure  peace,  military  supplies,  -and 
the  most  essential  industrial  equipment.  The  continued 
success  of  the  Russian  revolution,  he  urged,  was  indis- 
pensable for  the  success  of  the  impending  revolutions  in 


SOVIETISM  OUTSIDE  OF  RUSSIA        183 

Italy  and  Europe.     Therefore  an  immediate  revolution 
in  Italy  would  be  ' '  premature. ' ' 

But  Russian  and  Italian  Bolshevists  are  agreed  that 
the  Italian  revolution  must  come  very  soon  and  that 
no  moment  is  to  be  lost.  They  have  also  accepted  Le- 
nine's  view  that  the  conditions  in  the  two  countries  are 
different  and  that  other  methods  must  be  used;  and, 
besides,  Russian  Bolshevism  acknowledges  mistakes. 
Bolshevism  up  to  date  and  applied  to  western  Europe, 
therefore,  urges  the  following  steps  towards  early  revolt 
(we  quote  the  Austrian  radical  Socialist  organ,  Der 
Kampf,  whose  summary  is  reprinted  in  the  pro-Bolshe- 
vist French  organ,  Le  Populaire) : 

(1)  The  Italians  must  utilize  their  parliamentary 
force  ( 150  Bolshevist  Socialists  out  of  500  members) 
not  for  constructive  legislation,  but  for  revolution- 
ary obstruction  leading  to  the  verge  of  revolution 
on  the  floor  of  the  Chamber. 

(2)  "A  sufficient  political  power  must  be  de- 
veloped (chiefly  in  municipalities)  to  prevent  the 
bourgeoisie  from  being  able  to  use  the  army." 

(3)  "Soviets  must  be  organized  in  all  the  do- 
mains of  production  and  of  political  and  social 
activity.  These  Soviets  will  form  the  framework  of 
the  new  society.  They  will  be  ready  to  be  put  to 
work  the  moment  the  bourgeois  organism  com- 
mences to  crumble.  In  order  to  be  able  to  take 
possession  at  once  of  all  (public  and  industrial) 
services  Ministers  must  be  chosen  now  and  must 
keep  in  touch  with  the  labor  organizations  of  each 
province.,, 

So  the  violent  revolution  in  Italy,  to  be  carried  out  by 
a  party  which  found  itself  in  a  minority  in  the  elections 
only  a  few  months  ago,  is  to  be  postponed,  but  it  is  not  to 
be  long  postponed — if  the  Russian  emissaries  continue 


184  SOVIETISM 

to  rule  their  co-revolutionists.  The  French  Bolshevist- 
Socialists  also,  in  an  almost  identical  numerical  minor- 
ity, regard  this  adaptation  of  Sovietism  as  excellent — 
according  to  their  organ,  Le  Populaire. 

Russian  and  German  Sovietism. — On  the  24th  of 
February,  1920,  an  important  emissary  of  the  Soviets 
called  a  secret  meeting  in  Berlin  of  Spartacists  and  In- 
dependent Socialists.  Though  his  name  was  withheld 
the  press  was  given  an  account  of  his  speech — in  which 
he  assured  the  German  revolutionists  that  the  cause 
of  the  world  revolution  had  not  been  shelved — even 
temporarily. 

"The  Russian  State  today,"  said  this  apostle  of 
Bolshevism, ' '  is  the  most  marvelous  proof  of  success- 
ful proletarian  rule.  The  Muscovite  Government 
does  not  dream  of  making  any  concessions  to  the 
western  countries  nor  to  give  up  its  determination 
to  revolutionize  the  whole  world  after  the  Russian 
pattern,  but  Lenine  and  his  associates,  after  sev- 
eral years'  experience,  have  become  convinced  that 
Bolshevism  has  other  and  more  effective,  while  less 
costly,  means  to  conquer  than  mere  guns  and  armies. 
Not  that  the  Soviet  Government  intends  to  do  en- 
tirely without  an  army. 

"Russia's  army  now  totals  2,500,000  men,  ex- 
cellently equipped,  and  officered  and  commanded  by 
the  best  Generals  of  the  old  regime,  many  of  whom 
have  become  convinced  of  Bolshevism. 

"If  Russia,  despite  this  splendid  army,  is  now 
seeking  peace  with  the  rest  of  the  world,  it  is  be- 
cause a  peaceful  world  would  naturally  open  its 
doors  to  Russians  who  would  carry  the  spirit  of 
Bolshevism  with  them  wherever  they  went,  be  they 
merchants,  Government  servants  or  laborers. 

"Bolshevism  will  probably  make  a  triumphant 
course  through  the  old  Galician  province  to  Hun- 


SOVIETISM  OUTSIDE  OP  RUSSIA        185 

gary  and  Austria  and  into  Germany  and  Italy. 
Once  established  there,  it  will  be  only  a  question 
of  months  when,  under  the  pressure  of  the  military 
forces  of  an  all-Bolshevik  Europe,  the  French  bour- 
geois Republic  and  its  Allies  must  capitulate,  be- 
cause its  structures  are  already  undermined  by  our 
friends  to  a  degree  that  would  astonish  Millerand 
and  Deschanel  if  they  knew." 

This  undoubtedly  referred  to  the  revolutionary  rail- 
way strike,  which  was  then  being  planned,  and  broke 
out  in  France  only  two  days  later,  instigated  by  French 
Sovietists  (under  Loriot). 

The  emissary  of  the  Muscovite  Government  concluded 
by  declaring  that  an  early  peace  with  the  world  would 
mean  its  speedy  conquest  by  Bolshevism. 

The  speaker  might  have  added  that  revolutionary 
preparations  would  be  continued  even  while  peace  nego- 
tiations were  in  progress. 

Bolshevist  Imperialism. — What  are  the  motives  that 
explain  the  Bolshevist  reaction  from  pacifism  to  impe- 
rialism? While  they  never  preached  pacifism  they  were 
in  accord  with  the  pacifists  on  most  points.  Then  why 
this  reversal?  It  must  be  remembered,  first  of  all,  that 
the  overshadowing  Bolshevist  mental  trait  is  an  almost 
inconceivable  sectarian  megalomania.  The  sect  is 
everything ;  outside  of  it  the  world,  history,  and  human- 
ity amount  to  little.  Hence  what  appears  to  outsiders 
as  a  mental  and  moral  somersault  appears  to  them  as 
a  mere  change  of  tactics  in  the  struggle  for  power.  But, 
in  the  course  of  this  struggle,  certain  theories  do  appear 
and  hold  the  field  for  a  few  months  or  years.  Among 
these  has  been  the  theory  that  the  war  has  destroyed 
all  the  foundations  of  society  and  so  will  introduce  a 


186  SOVIETISM 

millennium — though  the  Bolshevists  were  thoroughly 
anti-Utopian  economists  before  the  war.  Now  we  read : 
"This  imperialist  war  catastrophe  has  with  one  swoop 
swept  away  all  the  gains  of  parliamentary  struggles," 
etc.,  etc.  (Manifesto  of  the  Communist  International.) 
Then,  connected  with  this  theory  of  a  bloody  mil- 
lennium ushered  in  with  wars  and  dictatorships  remind- 
ing one  of  the  Mohammedans — to  whom  the  Bolsheviki 
are  making  a  special  and  successful  appeal — there  is  the 
idea  that  it  is  the  Bolshevists  and  the  "self-conscious 
proletarians"  who  follow  them  that  are  the  chosen 
people  with  this  Messianic  mission  to  save  the  Entire  hu- 
man race  forthwith  by  the  sword  and  propaganda.  The 
Manifesto  of  the  Third  International  (March,  1919), 
due  largely  to  Lenine,  throws  light  on  the  mental  proc- 
esses behind  this  theory — by  which  all  the  backward 
peoples,  from  Chinese  and  Hindus  to  American  Negroes, 
are  to  be  mobilized  for  Sovietism.  Even  at  the  Stutt- 
gart International  Socialist  Congress  of  1907,  Lenine 
was  playing  with  this  thought — as  the  present  writer  can 
testify  from  having  sat  next  to  him  and  discussed  the 
matter  at  length  during  the  colonial  debate.  Even  then 
he  wanted  all  peoples  to  achieve  immediate  self-govern- 
ment without  preparation.  But  it  was  only  the  new  at- 
mosphere of  Soviet  magic  and  world  revolution  caused 
by  the  war  that  led  him  to  such  an  outre  formula  as 
this,  that  "the  proletariat  creates  a  new  form  of  ap- 
paratus comprising  the  entire  working  class,  irrespective 
of  being  ripe  in  an  expert  and  political  sense."  From 
this  the  transition  is  easy  to  Hottentot  or  any  other 
Soviets  and  this  direct  appeal  to  all  races  to  revolt: 
"Slaves  of  the  colonies  in  Africa  and  Asia!    The  hour 


SOVIETISM  OUTSIDE  OF  RUSSIA        187 

of  proletarian  dictatorship  in  Europe  will  be  the  hour 
of  your  release!" 

Yet  surely  these  slaves  are  not  proletarians.  For  90 
per  cent,  of  their  social  and  economic  system  is  precisely 
what  it  has  been  for  centuries,  and  only  a  relatively 
amall  (if  burdensome  and  inexcusable)  amount  of  ex- 
ploitation can  be  charged  to  foreign  capital.  Foreign 
capital  may  have  held  them  back  in  this  state,  but  that 
does  not  make  them  proletarians,  i.e.,  persons  exploited 
by  capital — for  this  is  Lenine's  own  use  of  the  term,  ac- 
cording to  which  he  excludes  an  immense  part  even  of 
the  Russian  peasantry  from  the  proletariat! 

It  is  not  Bolshevist  theories  that  lead  to  the  Bolshe- 
vists' faith  that  they  are  the  chosen  people  destined  to 
save  humanity.  It  is  the  faith  that  they  are  the  chosen 
people  that  leads  to  Bolshevist  theories. 

The  Function  of  the  Communist  International. — The 
Bolshevists  have  two  immense  international  propaganda 
organizations,  (1)  the  Ministry  or  Commissariat  of 
(Soviet  Propaganda  at  Moscow,  and  (2)  the  Third  or 
Communist  Internationale,  initiated  by  them  and  wholly 
under  their  control.  Where  revolutionary  prospects  are 
good,  as  in  Germany,  the  two  organizations  are  practi- 
cally fused.  Where  prospects  are  not  so  good,  as  in 
America,  they  are  kept  separate  so  that  the  propaganda 
to  secure  "liberal"  sympathy  and  support  and  openly 
to  purchase  the  interest  of  traders  and  concessionaires 
may  not  be  rendered  futile  by  a  simultaneous  appeal  to 
the  revolutionists  of  the  same  countries.  So  while  ' '  Am- 
bassador" Martens  was  doing  business  with  American 
"radicals,"  "liberals,"  free  traders,  philanthropists, 
politicians,  and  certain  newspapers  and  periodicals,  the 


188  SOVIETISM 

Third  Internationale  was  secretly  busy  with  the  various 
Communist  organizations  and  with  an  effort  to  Sovietize 
the  I.  W.  W.  Though  under  orders  from  the  Soviets 
and  on  intimate  terms  with  the  American  Communists 
the  connection  of  Martens  with  the  revolutionary  side 
of  the  propaganda  seems  impossible  of  proof — in  Amer- 
ica. But  the  connection  of  the  two  in  Russia  is  com- 
plete, and  the  American  Government  publishes  three  dis- 
patches (one  dated  January,  1920)  from  the  Third  In- 
ternationale and  Soviet  authorities  that  in  themselves 
prove  it — if  proof  were  needed.  One  is  a  message  cap- 
tured from  a  Soviet  courier  by  the  Lettish  Government 
and  addressed  to  the  American  Communists  by  Zinoviev, 
the  noted  leader  of  the  Soviets  and  President  of  the 
Executive  Committee  of  the  Third  Internationale.  The 
message  instructs  the  American  Communists  (of  the  only 
two  factions  which  had  then  joined  the  Soviet  Inter- 
national— the  American  Socialist  Party  having  joined 
later)  as  follows: 

1 '  The  party  must  take  into  account  the  everyday 
incidents  of  the  class  war.  The  stage  of  verbal 
propaganda  and  agitation  has  been  left  behind.  The 
time  for  decisive  battles  has  arrived.  The  most  im- 
portant task  confronting  the  American  Communists 
at  the  present  moment  is  to  draw  the  wide  prole- 
tarian masses  into  the  path  of  revolutionary 
struggle.  The  party  must  have  (for  its  object?)  the 
dissolution  of  the  American  Federation  of  Labor 
and  other  unions  associated  with  it  and  must  strive 
to  establish  the  closest  connections  with  the  I.  W. 
W.,  the  One  Big  Union,  and  the  W.  I.  I.  U.  The 
party  must  support  the  foundation  of  the  factory 
workers'  committees  in  factories,  these  serving  aa 
bases  for  the  everyday  struggle  and  for  training 
the  advarce  guard  of  labor  in  managing  industry." 


SOVIETISM  OUTSIDE  OP  RUSSIA        189 

The  amalgamation  of  the  foreign  speaking  na- 
tional federations  with  the  English-speaking  party 
is  insisted  upon.  Being  better  trained  theoretically, 
the  communication  goes  on  to  say,  and  more  closely 
bound  by  the  Russian  revolutionary  traditions,  the 
members  of  the  national  federations  may  in  the 
future  have  the  guiding  influence.  The  employment 
of  the  referendum,  it  says,  should  be  reduced  to  a 
minimum. 

"Referendum^  are  considered  undesirable  during 
the  period  of  disagreement,"  reads  one  of  the  con- 
ditions laid  down  in  the  plan  of  uniting  the  two 
American  parties. 

"Unless  the  workers  of  other  countries  rise 
against  their  own  capitalists,"  runs  the  appeal  to 
the  American  I.  ~W.  W.'s,  "the  Russian  revolution 
cannot  last." 

Zinoviev  states  that  the  general  strike,  as  advo- 
cated by  the  I.  W.  W.,  is  insufficient  to  wrest  power 
from  the  capitalist  state.  Armed  insurrection,  he 
says,  must  be  employed. 

The  Bolshevists'  Communist  International  is  so  wholly 
occupied  with  international  revolution  that  its  meetings 
are  concerned  with  nothing  else. 

The  Dutch  Communists  published  on  March  20,  1920, 
a  special  edition  of  the  Communist  Tribune  with  a 
complete  list  of  the  resolutions  adopted  by  the  secret 
meeting  of  the  Third  Internationale  held  in  February 
in  Amsterdam. 

Several  of  these  resolutions  include  urgent  appeals 
to  Communists  to  support  any  movement  furthering  a 
world  revolution,  and  declare  "in  order  to  further  this 
action  Communists  in  every  country  must  use  strike 
movements  and  mass  demonstrations."  Other  resolu- 
tions call  for  stopping  transportation,  especially  the 
transport  of  war  materials. 


190  SOVIETISM 

"When  in  Germany  or  anywhere  else  a  revolution 
breaks  out,"  says  one  resolution,  "the  forces  of 
the  international  proletariat,  especially  transport 
workers  in  England,  America,  Italy,  France,  Scan- 
dinavia and  Holland,  must  prepare  for  a  general 
strike  at  the  moment  the  capitalist  powers  begin 
to  intervene.  Amsterdam  must  organize  action  as 
quickly  as  possible."  (New  York  Times  despatch, 
March  21,  1920.) 

The  Strength  and  Weakness  of  the  World  Revolt  as 
the  Basis  of  Sovietism. — In  a  speech  at  the  last  Soviet 
Congress  (Moscow,  January,  1920)  Lenine  at  the  very 
beginning  of  his  address  exposed  the  whole  false  foun- 
dation of  Soviet  reasoning.  He  declared,  as  reported  by 
the  friendly  Lincoln  Eyre: 

"We  have  always  said  both  before  and  after  the 
October  revolution  that  we  regard  ourselves  merely 
as  a  detachment  of  the  international  army  of  the 
proletariat.  It  is  only  possible  to  count  on  a  final 
victory  of  the  Socialist  revolution  when  the  pro- 
letariat is  victorious,  at  least  in  a  number  of*  ad- 
vanced countries.  This  factor  has  created  the  chief 
difficulty  that  we  have  had  to  experience.  This 
shouldn  't  surprise  us,  for  it  was  easier  to  commence 
the  Socialist  revolution  in  a  country  like  Russia 
than  in  more  advanced  countries." 

Lenine  regards  Sovietism  as  being  far  on  the  road  to 
victory,  as  the  context  and  other  declarations  show.  But 
a  secure,  permanent,  and  substantial  victory  depends 
upon  revolts  in  advanced  countries.  In  other  words,  he 
admits  once  more,  as  he  has  frequently  admitted  before, 
that  Bolshevism  cannot  survive  in  a  backward  country 
like  Russia,  where  alone  it  has  any  strength. 


OHAPTEB  XVII 

THE   CAPTURE   OP   THE   SOCIALIST   PARTIES 
BY   BOLSHEVISM 

A  gross  error  prevails  as  to  the  attitude  of  the  worlds 
leading  .Socialist  Parties  towards  Bolshevism.  Most  of 
these  parties  were  dominated  by  advocates  of  democracy 
and  peaceful  parliamentary  progress  before  the  war 
and  the  Bolshevik  revolution  in  Russia.  Most  of  them 
are  now  dominated  by  advocates  of  violent  revolution — ■ 
"dictatorship  of  the  proletariat." 

There  are  still  many  prominent  anti-Bolshevist  So- 
cialists in  all  countries,  but  they  have  been  re- 
duced to  dwindling  minorities  on  the  entire  Continent 
of  Europe,  with  only  a  few  exceptions — Belgium,  Den- 
mark, Sweden.  About  half  of  the  leaders  of  the 
British  Labor  Party — if  we  regard  that  as  a  Socialist 
organization — are  still  anti-Bolshevist.  The  "American 
Socialist  Party"  is  aligned  with  the  Continent. 

Whatever  there  is  left  of  anti-Bolshevism  was  present 
at  the  two  1919  Congresses  of  the  Second  Socialist 
International,  held  at  Berne  in  February  and  at  Lucerne 
in  August.  But  at  these  Congresses  the  anti-Bolshevists 
(though  in  the  majority)  did  not  dare  to  take  a  vote 
either  against  Communism  in  general  or  against  the 
Russian  Bolshevists. 

They  did  show,  however,  that  Bolshevism  is  opposed 
to  traditional  Socialism — not  by  a  vote,  but  by  the  fol- 
lowing expression  of  majority  opinion: 

191 


192  SOVIETISM 

"In  full  agreement  with  all  previous  Congresses 
of  the  International,  the  Berne  Conference  firmly 
adheres  to  the  principles  of  Democracy.  A  re- 
organized society  more  and  more  permeated  with 
Socialism,  cannot  be  realised,  much  less  permanently 
established,  unless  it  rests  upon  triumphs  of  Democ- 
racy and  is  rooted  in  the  principles  of  liberty. 'r 

'  Since,  in  the  opinion  of  the  Conference,  effective 
socialist  development  is  only  possible  under  demo- 
cratic law,  it  is  essential  to  eliminate  at  once  any 
method  of  socialization  which  has  no  prospect  of 
gaining  the  support  of  the  majority  of  the  people. 

"A  dictatorship  of  this  character  would  be  all 
the  more  dangerous  if  it  were  based  upon  the  sup- 
port of  only  one  section  of  the  working  class.  The 
inevitable  consequence  of  such  a  regime  would  be 
the  paralysis  of  working-class  strength  through 
fratricidal  war.  The  inevitable  end  would  be  the 
dictatorship  of  reaction." 

This  demonstrates  merely  that  the  Socialist  Parties  of 
the  world  are  getting  more  and  more  Bolshevistic.  For 
the  most  powerful  Socialist  Party  in  Europe  outside  of 
Russia,  the  Italian,  with  160  members  of  parliament, 
has  not  only  joined  Lenine's  Third  International,  but 
endorses  Sovietism  and  communism,  for  Italy  minority 
revolutions  by  violence  for  all  countries,  and  the  entire 
Lenine  program. 

The  Socialists  of  Norway  and  several  minor  countries 
have  followed.  The  Socialists  of  Switzerland  and  the 
United  States,  Spain,  and  several  other  countries,  have 
decided  they  will  belong  to  no  International  that  does 
not  contain  the  Bolshevists  of  all  countries.  For  them 
Russian  Bolshevism  is  the  greatest  achievement  of  So- 
cialism in  history  and — on  the  whole  a  model. 

Sovietism  and  communism  are  under  consideration 


SOVIETISM  OUTSIDE  OF  RUSSIA        193 

for  adaptation  to  America,  Switzerland,  Spain,  and 
these  other  countries — and  they  are  doing  everything 
in  their  power,  concentrating  a  very  large  part  of  their 
energies  to  defending  Sovietism,  communism,  and  "the 
dictatorship  of  the  proletariat"  in  Russia. 

The  Socialists  of  France,  the  Independent  Socialists 
of  Germany,  etc.,  take  the  same  ground.  They  are  for 
an  International  with  the  Bolshevist  parties,  and  they 
want  to  exclude  all  democratic  Socialists.  This  was  the 
ground  they  took  at  Berne  and  Lucerne — voting  against 
the  resolution  above  quoted. 

Last  Summer  the  American  Socialist  Party  sent  a 
member  of  its  Executive  Committee,  James  Oneal,  to 
Europe  to  report  on  the  International  Socialist  situa- 
tion. Oneal 's  report  contains  the  following  significant 
phrases  favoring  the  Moscow  International: 

"The  Moscow  Congress  certainly  has  in  mind  the 
ideals  of  Socialism,  not  the  concept  of  communism 
of  wealth,  which  has  characterized  many  religious 
sects.  Its  membership  is  made  up  of  all  the  ele- 
ments of  the  Socialist  movement  that  oppose  war 
and  militarism,  relies  upon  the  class  struggle  to 
chart  the  course  of  the  movement,  and  keeps  in 
mind  the  fact  that  the  real  struggle  in  the  modern 
world  is  one  between  the  workers  of  all  countries 
as  against  the  ruling  classes  of  all  countries." 

As  a  result  of  this  report  over  one-third  of  the  dele- 
gates of  the  present  Socialist  Party  in  their  Chicago 
conference  in  September  voted  for  immediate  affiliation 
with  Moscow.  The  other  two-thirds  were  entirely  in 
favor  of  affiliation,  but  desired  to  cooperate  at  the  same 
time  with  German  Independent  Socialists  and  others 
already  mentioned. 


*94  SOVIETISM 

It  is  necessary  to  emphasize  this  tidal  wave  towards 
Sovietism,  because  the  best  known  and  greatest  So- 
cialists are  anti-Bolshevists,  and  their  declarations  have 
given  the  opposite  impression. 

Indeed  no  persons  in  the  world  are  better  qualified 
by  intimate  acquaintance  with  Lenine  and  Bolshevism 
and  by  their  experience  and  knowledge  to  give  a  phil- 
osophic, statesmanlike  and  scientifically  and  practically 
accurate  judgment.  Kautsky  and  Bernstein  in  Ger- 
many, Henderson  in  England,  Albert  Thomas  and  Jules 
Guesde  in  France,  Vandervelde  in  Switzerland,  Brant- 
ing  in  Sweden — the  world  has  no  higher  authorities 
on  such  a  question. 

At  the  Lucerne  Congress  Vandervelde,  now  Belgian 
Minister  of  Justice  and  Chairman  of  the  International 
until  last  Winter,  declared  that  a  socialism  which  did 
not  recognize  Parliaments  and  labor  unions  was  no 
socialism.  The  Belgian  delegates  demanded  the  imme- 
diate and  definite  repudiation  of  the  Soviets. 

Edward  Bernstein  of  the  German  Majority  (the  same 
who  declared  that  nine  out  of  every  ten  points  of  the 
Versailles  Treaty  were  justified)  pointed  out  that  the 
Soviet  idea  of  labor  councils  is  reactionary  when  com- 
pared with  the  idea  of  labor  unions.  For  the  councils, 
being  localized,  scattered  instead  of  concentrating  the 
power  of  labor.  All  Bolshevism  was  in  fact  a  reaction. 
"In  spite  of  its  revolutionary  vocabulary  it  is  pre- 
Marxian  and  Utopian.  They  had  gone  back  for  many 
of  their  ideas  to  Marx's  anarchist  antagonist,  Bakunin. 
But  they  did  not  have  the  same  excuse  as  Bakunin,  for 
fifty  years  of  history  had  followed  to  demonstrate  hk 
errors/' 

At  the  same  Congress,  J.  R.  MacDonald,  long  Chair- 


SOVIETISM  OUTSIDE  OF  RUSSIA         195 

man  of  the  British  Labor  Party,  declared  that  the  Soviet 
regime  was  "destructive,  not  constructive,  reactionary, 
not  progressive"  and  that  there  was  no  alternative  to 
democracy. 

Arthur  Henderson,  leader  of  the  British  Labor  Party, 
wrote : 

"Socialism  without  democracy  is  nonsense.  We 
know  what  the  situation  is  in  Russia.  We  are  in  a 
position  to  judge  it.  I  was  there  during  the  revo- 
lution, and  I  could  see  that  Bolshevism  is  oppres- 
sion, violence,  terror,  and  nothing  else. 

"We  repudiate  any  policy  of  violence,  whether  it 
comes  from  above  or  below. 

"For  the  reestablishment  of  the  Socialist  Inter- 
national, we  must  necessarily  put  a  line  of  demarca- 
tion between  the  purely  destructive  Bolshevism  and 
constructive  Socialism  pure  and  simple." 

Karl  Kautsky,  the  best  known  Socialist  authority  alive, 
rejects  utterly  the  Bolshevist  propaganda  for  revolution 
in  such  democratic  countries  as  France,  England,  and 
America. 

The  chief  argument  in  favor  of  Sovietism,  an  argu- 
ment used  to  me  personally  by  Lenine  in  1906 — and  to 
be  found  throughout  all  his  writings  and  speeches — is 
that  only  when  a  temporary  dictatorship  can  set  up  a 
model  Socialist  regime  can  the  masses  see  whether  they 
want  it  or  not.  They  learn  not  from  propaganda  but 
from  "the  accomplished  fact."  True,  but  this  accom- 
plished fact,  according  to  Kautsky,  consists  not  in  tem- 
porary dictatorships  in  economically  and  intellectually 
backward  countries,  but  in  the  continued  progress  made 
by  peaceful  democratic  means  in  the  advanced  demo- 
cratic nations. 


196  SOVIETISM 

The  world's  highest  Socialist  authority  does  not  mince 
his  words  in  dealing  with  Bolshevism  since  he  regards 
it  as  the  antithesis  of  democratic  Socialism.  He  says 
the  Bolshevists  have  conquered  their  enemies  by  "ex- 
ploiting the  lack  of  education  and  the  lowest  instincts 
of  the  workers." 

"Bolshevism  has  replaced  the  Socialist  struggle 
for  the  liberation  of  all  mankind  by  passions  of 
vengeance  and  outbursts  of  cruelty  against  all  lib- 
erty loving  citizens. 

' '  Bolshevism  has  contributed  nothing  to  the  moral 
uplifting  of  the  proletariat;  on  the  contrary,  Bol- 
shevism has  completely  demoralized  the  working 
class." 

Kautsky  and  Bernstein,  both  of  whom  have  been 
deeply  interested  in  the  emancipation  of  Russia  for  half 
a  century  and  understand  Russian  Socialism  thoroughly, 
regard  the  entire  Bolshevist  movement  as  a  reaction  and 
a  counter  movement  against  the  socialistic  democracy 
established  by  Kerensky. 

"The  Bolsheviki  are  the  real  counter-revolution- 
ists in  Russia.  They  are  the  executioners  of  the 
Revolution. ' ' 

Following  the  Spartacists,  the  German  Independents 
have  gone  into  the  Bolshevik  camp.  This  leaves  only 
the  Socialist  minority  which  is  now  leading  the  German 
coalition  government  under  Ebert  and  Bauer.  Un- 
doubtedly the  Swiss  will  follow  and  probably  also  the 
French,  as  shown  in  the  resolution  proposed  at  their 
1920  Congress  (at  Strassbourg)  by  the  leader  of  the 
Party,  Jean  Longuet;  its  Secretary,  Frossard,  and  ft 


SOVIETISM  OUTSIDE  OF  RUSSIA        197 

group  of  40  other  pro-Bolshevists.  The  resolution,  which 
briefly  sums  up  the  entire  International  Socialist  situa- 
tion, is  in  part  as  follows : 

"The  efforts  made  by  the  French  Socialist  Party  at 
Berne  and  Lucerne  to  re-align  the  Second  International 
with  the  aid  of  the  left  wing  of  that  organization  are 
henceforth  destined  to  complete  failure  and  the  regroup- 
ing of  revolutionary  Socialist  forces,  upon  the  tradi- 
tional bases  of  international  Socialism  is  an  urgent  duty. 
I  ' '  The  Party  declares  that  in  view  of  its  present  mem- 
ibership  the  Second  International  no  longer  corresponds 
Iwith  the  revolutionary  situation  of  most  countries — 
which  demands  a  new  International.  Besides  the  Second 
International  contains  only  a  part  of  the  Socialist  work- 
ingmen  of  the  world.  It  is  now  confronted  by  the  Third 
International,  formed  at  Moscow  in  March,  1919,  which 
presents  an  uncompromising  program  of  class  struggle, 
as  formulated  by  the  communist  manifesto  (1847)  and 
by  the  resolution  of  the  International  Socialist  Congress 
at  Amsterdam  (1904) — the  fundamental  chartas  of  all 
Socialist  movements  and  activities.  To  that  new  In- 
ternational belong — besides  a  majority  of  the  Russian 
Socialists — the  Socialist  parties  of  Italy,  Norway,  Serbia, 
and  Roumania  and  factions  in  Sweden,  Denmark,  Bul- 
garia, Germany,  Hungary,  America,  and  England. 

"Besides  these,  three  important  organizations  have 
left  the  Second  International :  The  Swiss  Socialist  Party, 
the  Socialist  Party  of  the  United  States,  and  the  Inde- 
pendent Party  of  Germany.  This  last  named  organiza- 
tion has  decided  in  its  Congress  of  December,  1919,  to 
negotiate  with  the  revolutionary  groups  of  western 
Europe  and  to  present  itself  at  the  Congress  of  the 


198  SOVIETISM 

Third  International  with  the  combination  thus  formed. 
If  it  does  not  succeed  in  this  grouping  it  has  decided 
to  join  the  Third  International  anyway. 

"The  French  Socialist  Party  endorses  with  all  its 
power  the  suggestion  of  the  German  Independents  and 
will  work  for  the  world  unity  of  Socialism  by  the  fusion 
of  all  elements  of  the  Second  International  which  have 
remained  faithful  to  the  class-struggle  with  the  groups 
that  compose  the  Third  International. 

' '  Because  of  the  capitalist  governments  of  the  Entente 
it  is  impossible  to  know  the  details  of  the  Russian  revo- 
lution or  to  judge  in  a  complete  way  all  its  work  and 
its  actions.  But  the  French  Socialist  Party,  in  agree- 
ment in  any  case  with  all  proletarian  emancipation 
movements,  considers  that  none  of  the  fundamental 
declarations  of  the  Moscow  International  is  in  contradic- 
tion with  the  essential  principles  of  Socialism,  that  the 
dictatorship  of  the  proletariat — destined  to  assure  the 
passage  of  capitalist  society  into  a  Socialist  regime — is 
the  basis  of  every  concept  of  revolution,  and  that  the 
institution  of  workingmen's  councils  is  evidently  one  of 
the  most  effective  means  of  accomplishing  that  transfer 
of  power." 

The  Strassbourg  Congress,  after  a  bitter  struggle,  re- 
fused to  join  the  Communist  Internationale  at  once — on 
Lenine  's  terms.    But  it  adopted  the  Longuet  resolution ! 

In  a  national  referendum,  completed  in  January, 
1920,  the  membership  of  the  American  Socialist  Party, 
which  constitutes  its  highest  authority,  voted  to  join  the 
Third  International  (the  Communists).  The  report 
was  adopted  by  a  vote  of  3475,  against  1444  for  the 
"majority"  report. 

The  minority  report,  which  the  party  membership 


SOVIETISM  OUTSIDE  OF  RUSSIA        199 

adopted,  was  signed  by  J.  Louis  Engdahl  and  William 
F.  Kruse.  Engdahl  at  the  time  was  official  Socialist 
editor  and  Kruse  had  been  secretary  of  the  Young 
People's  Socialist  League.  Both  of  them,  together  with 
Victor  Berger,  were  convicted  in  the  Chicago  Socialist 
trial  of  violation  of  the  Espionage  Act,  and  sentenced. 
The  case  is  now  on  appeal. 

The  manifesto  unanimously  adopted  by  the  Socialist 
convention  in  September,  1919,  offered  support  to  the 
Soviets,  but  the  resolutions  adopted  by  the  party  mem- 
bership more  specifically  came  out  for  the  Third  In- 
ternational. 

The  manifesto  declared: 

"We,  the  organized  Socialists  of  America,  pledge 
our  support  to  the  revolutionary  workers  of  Russia 
in  the  maintenance  of  their  Soviet  Government." 

The  resolution  on  international  relations  now  adopted 
jays: 

"We  consider  that  the  second  international  ceased 
to  function  as  an  international  Socialist  body  on 
the  outbreak  of  the  world  war. 

"Any  international,  to  be  effective  in  this  crisis, 
jaust  contain  only  those  elements  who  take  their 
stand  unreservedly  upon  the  basis  of  the  class 
struggle,  and  who  by  their  deeds  demonstrate  that 
their  adherence  to  this  principle  is  not  mere  lip 
loyalty. 

"The  second  international  is  dead.  We  consider 
that  a  new  international  which  contains  those 
groups  which  contributed  to  the  downfall  of  our 
former  organization  must  be  so  weak  in  its  Socialist 
policy  as  to  be  useless. 

"The  Socialist  Party  of  the  United  States,  in 
principle  and  in  its  past  history,  has  always  stood 
with   those   elements  of   other  countries   that  re- 


200  SOVIETISM 

mained  true  to  their  principles.  The  manifestoes 
adopted  in  national  convention  at  St.  Louis  (1917) 
and  Chicago  (1919)  as  well  as  referendum  (D) 
1919,  unequivocally  affirm  this  stand.  These 
parties,  the  majority  parties  of  Russia,  Italy,  Swit- 
zerland, Norway,  Bulgaria,  Serbia,  Greece,  and 
growing  minorities  in  every  land,  are  uniting  on 
the  basis  of  the  preliminary  convocation  at  Moscow 
of  the  third  international.  As  in  the  past,  so  in 
this  extreme  crisis,  we  must  take  our  stand  with 
them." 

The  American  Socialists  Join  the  Communist  Inter- 
national.— Following  the  adoption  of  the  minority  reso- 
lution by  the  party  membership,  official  application  was 
made  on  March  18  for  membership  in  Lenine's  Com- 
munist International  by  Otto  Branstetter,  national  ex- 
ecutive secretary  of  the  party. 

Thus  the  American  party  has  gone  the  way  of  the 
Italians — not  even  stopping  at  the  half-way  house  of 
the  French  Socialists.  So  nearly  all  of  the  leading 
Socialist  Parties  of  the  world — assuming  that  the  British 
and  Australian  Labor  Parties,  as  their  names  imply,  are 
not  altogether  Socialist — have  either  joined  with  the 
Bolshevists,  who  have  repudiated  the  very  name  So- 
cialist, or  indicated  their  intention  to  do  so  in  the  imme- 
diate future. 

And  these  are  the  leading  popular  parties  in  most  of 
the  countries  of  Continental  Europe!  Nor  is  the 
pro-Bolshevist  tendency  of  a  large  section  of  the  pow- 
erful British  Labor  Party  any  less  marked ! 

The  Soviet  Government  and  the  Communist  Inter- 
nationale.— The  identity  of  the  control  of  the  Soviet 
Government  and  the  Communist  Internationale  is  shown 
by  the  original  printed  documents  issued  by  these  organ- 


SOVIETISM  OUTSIDE  OF  RUSSIA         201 

izations  and  their  leaders,  and  by  the  Russian  Com- 
munist Party  which  binds  them  together.  The  United 
States  Government  issued  (on  April  11th,  1920)  a  large 
collection  of  these,  upon  which  it  reaches  the  conclusion 
that  "while  the  Soviet  institutions,  as  such,  may  agree 
to  abstain  from  subversive  propaganda  abroad,  neither 
the  Russian  Communist  Party  nor  the  Third  Interna- 
tional would  be  bound  thereby." 

The  State  Department  summarizes  this  mass  of  evi- 
dence as  follows : 

"The  program  of  the  Russian  Communist  Party 
is  one  of  world  revolution,  and  the  Communist  In- 
ternational is  avowedly  the  directing  and  coordinat- 
ing center  of  an  international  revolutionary 
movement  to  establish  the  'world  Soviet  republic' 
It  is  impossible  to  differentiate  as  to  world  policy  be- 
tween the  Russian  Communist  Party,  the  Third  or 
Communist  International,  and  the  official  Soviet  ad- 
ministration because  of  the  system  of  interlocking 
directorates  common  to  all  three. 

"The  most  authoritative  statements  with  respect 
to  the  official  relations  of  the  three  organizations  are 
utterances  of  these  leaders  who  occupy  directing 
positions  in  all  three — not  as  individuals,  but  as 
members  of  the  Communist  Party.  It  is  this  inter- 
locking directorate  created  by  the  common  per- 
sonnel which  establishes  that  the  Communist  Party, 
the  Soviets  and  the  Third  International  constitute 
a  single  movement  backed  by  all  the  administrative 
machinery  and  resources  of  Soviet  Russia,  directed 
to  the  instigation  of  revolutions  in  other  countries 
to  establish  the  proposed  'world  Soviet  republic' 

"The  Communist  Party  of  Russia,  the  Russian 
Soviets  and  the  Third  Internationale  are  so  closely 
interrelated  as  to  constitute  actually  if  not  techni- 
cally one  working  organization. 


202  SOVIETISM 

*  *  The  call  for  the  first  congress  of  the  Communist 
Internationale,  later  called  the  Third  International, 
was  signed  by  the  Central  Committee  of  the  Russian 
Communist  Party  (Lenine,  Trotzky,  Zineviev, 
Stalin,  Bukharin,  Tchitcherin,  Obolensky  (Osinsky) 
and  Vorovsky),  four  of  whom  hold  the  highest  of- 
ficial positions  in  the  Soviet  Hierarchy. 

"The  eighth  All-Russian  Congress  of  the  Com- 
munist Party,  meeting  a  few  weeks  later,  passed  a 
formal  resolution  adhering  to  the  platform  of  the 
Third  International  in  its  entirety.  In  an  intro- 
ductory speech  at  the  opening  session  of  the  Con- 
gress, Lenine  emphasized  the  importance  of  funding 
the  Third  International  and,  in  a  speech  summar- 
izing the  work  of  the  Congress  said:  'We  approved 
the  creation  of  the  Third  Communist  International. ' 
At  a  special  session  the  Communist  Party  in  con- 
junction with  official  Soviet  institutions  passed  a 
resolution  supporting  the  Communist  or  Third  In- 
ternational. 

"The  Third  International  has  an  executive  com- 
mittee, the  chairman  of  which  is  Zineviev,  as  shown 
in  a  typical  'appeal  to  the  proletarians  of  all  coun- 
tries' issued  in  the  name  of  the  Third  International, 
published  in  Izvestia,  Nov.  2,  1919.  Documents 
quoted  show  that  Zineviev  is  also  chairman  or  pres- 
ident of  the  Executive  Committee  of  the  Petrograd 
Soviet,  and  a  member  of  the  All-Russian  Central 
Executive  Committee.  In  addition,  he  is  chairman 
of  the  Petrograd  Committee  of  the  Russian  Com- 
munist Party  and  constantly  makes  reports  at  con- 
ferences and  meetings  of  that  party. 

' '  Bukharin  is  the  Vice-Chairman  of  the  Executive 
Committee  of  the  Third  International.  He  is  also 
a  member  of  the  All-Russian  Central  Executive 
Committee  and  of  the  Presidential  body  of  the  Third 
Congress  of  Soviets  of  National  Economy.  Buk- 
harin is  also  editor  of  the  Moscow  Pravda,  which  is 
an  official  organ  of  the  Russian  Communist  Party. 


SOVIETISM  OUTSIDE  OF  RUSSIA         203 

"The  Executive  Committee  of  the  Third  Inter- 
national has  its  headquarters  at  Smolny  Institute. 
Smolny  Institute  is  also  the  headquarters  of  the 
Executive  Committee  of  the  Petrograd  Soviet  and 
the  Petrograd  Committee  of  the  Russian  Communist 
Party. 

"The  Executive  Committee  of  the  Communist 
International  has  an  official  organ  called  the  Com- 
munist International,  the  first  issue  of  which 
appeared  March  1,  1919  (in  the  files  of  the  depart- 
ment in  Russian,  French  and  German  editions,  pub- 
lished simultaneously).  The  editorial  office  of  this 
publication  is  indicated  on  its  title  page  as  'Petro- 
grad, Smolny,  office  of  G.  Zineviev '  and  on  the  cover 
the  'Kremlin,  Moscow,'  the  headquarters  of  the 
Central  Soviet  institutions  precedes  the  indication 
'Petrograd,  Smolny.'  A  wireless  dated  Petrograd, 
Jan.  16,  1920,  gives  the  contents  of  the  seventh 
number  of  this  publication,  stating  that  'it  is  pub- 
lished at  Petrograd  under  the  direction  of  Zineviev, 
in  Russian,  English,  French  and  German.' 

"This  particular  number  contains  articles  by 
Lenine,  Trotzky,  Sadoul  and  Zineviev.  There  is  also 
an  article  entitled  'American  and  Russian  Revolu- 
tion' by  S.  Rutgers,  and  one  on  'The  Revolutionary 
Movement  in  America '  by  Reed. 

1 '  The  Communist  International,  as  such,  gives  not 
only  encouragement  but  direction  and  even  ordera 
to  Communist  parties  of  other  countries. 

"The  wireless  stations  in  Russia  are  under  strict 
official  Soviet  control.  They  are  used  for  adminis- 
trative purposes  and  also  to  distribute  news  through 
the  official  telegraph  agency,  the  Rosta.  The  appeals 
issued  by  the  Executive  Committee  of  the  Com- 
munist Internationale  are  sent  out  by  wireless.  Mes- 
sages to  representatives  of  Communist  groups  of 
other  countries  are  similarly  sent  out  by  the  official 
wireless  as,  for  example,  the  one  sent  out  by  Buk- 


204  30VIETISM 

harin  to  representatives  of  the  Austrian  Communist 
Party. 

' '  Soviet  officials,  in  addressing  Soviet  institutions, 
constantly  refer  to  the  Third  International.  Thus 
Zineviev,  as  President  of  the  Petrograd  Soviet,  ad- 
dressing a  special  session  of  that  body,  said :  '  Long 
live  the  future  ruler  of  the  world,  the  great  Com- 
munist International.'  Later,  in  opening  the  ses- 
sion of  the  newly  elected  Petrograd  Soviet,  Zineviev 
refers  to  Petrograd  as  'the  key  of  the  Third  Inter- 
national,' and  speaks  of  the  Petrograd  Soviet  as 
'the  guardian  and  keeper  of  the  key.' 

"In  an  order  to  the  Red  Army,  issued  by  the 
Petrograd  Military  Circuit,  the  Third  Communist 
International  is  mentioned  as  the  'Great  Uniter  of 
the  Proletarians.' 

"A  leading  article  in  the  Krasnaya  Gazeta,  an 
official  organ  of  the  Petrograd  Soviet,  speaks  of  the 
English  working  class  as  entering  'into  direct  rela- 
tions with  us, '  and  interprets  this  as  '  the  first  step 
of  our  English  brothers  on  the  road  to  the  Third 
International.'  Thus  the  general  attitude  of  all 
the  Bolshevist  leaders  with  respect  to  the  Third  In- 
ternational is  that  it  represents  one  of  their  most 
important  activities." 

One  of  the  documents  quoted  shows  in  a  few  lines  the 
purely  sectarian  nature  of  the  movement  and  the  un- 
principled means  by  which  it  maintains  its  hold  over  its 
half-educated  and  in  practical  matters  inexperienced 
following : 

"In  the  party  press,"  one  of  the  reports  sub- 
mitted to  the  Communist  Congress  declared,  "every 
lime  should  express  the  principles  of  communism,." 
The  simplest  news  item  should  pass  through  a  kind 
of  prism  and  be  accordingly  reflected  in  the  press. 
In  the  heading  of,  any  communication  and  in  the 


SOVIETISM,  OUTSIDE  OF*  RUSSIA        205 

headline  of  any  telegram,  in  a  word,  everywhere 
there  must  be  this  touch.  Formerly  papers  were  for 
the  most  part  commercial  enterprises.  With  us  it  is 
a  governmental  communist  apparatus,  created  to 
serve  the  proletariat.  The  paper  must  be  the  lash 
which  people  fear." 

Newspapers  which  are  not  unprincipled  propaganda 
sheets,  but  commercial  enterprises  can  keep  their  circu- 
lation in  competition  with  other  newspapers  only  by 
making  a  very  broad  appeal  to  many  kinds  of  readers 
and  to  a  wide  variety  of  human  interests.  It  is  only 
where  there  is  a  governmental  control  of  printing  presses 
and  paper,  together  with  the  prohibition  or  rigid  control 
of  all  opposition  opinion  that  any  such  sectarian  policy 
can  be  followed.  It  is  the  very  foundation  of  the  momen- 
tary "success"  of  Sovietism. 


APPENDICES 


APPENDICES 

I — Sovietism  and  Religion 

Without  an  important  exception  the  Communist  lead- 
ers are  militant  and  ' '  ostentatious ' '  atheists,  and  regard 
anti-religious  propaganda  as  one  of  the  foundations  of 
their  movement.  One  of  their  American  branches  (the 
Federation  of  Russian  Workers)  even  places  the  propa- 
ganda against  religion  before  the  propaganda  for  com- 
munism— a  manifesto  declaring,  "We  hate  religion. 
.  .  .  And  we  declare  war  upon  all  gods  and  religious 
fables.  We  are  atheists,"  and  coming  to  communism 
only  in  the  next  paragraph. 

The  attitude  is  not  that  of  the  mere  non-believer  of 
the  type  of  Voltaire,  Tom  Paine,  Herbert  Spencer  or 
the  modern  scientific  and  humane  writers  on  the  psy- 
chology or  history  of  religion.  Religion  is  regarded  not 
as  an  intellectual  error  of  the  race,  nor  as  a  means  of 
oppression  in  some  of  its  manifestations,  but  as  being 
solely  a  means  of  class  rule  and  the  maintenance  of  the 
existing  social  system.  They  are  anti-religious  fanatics 
as  violent  in  their  beliefs  as  any  of  the  superstitious 
religious  fanatics  of  past  centuries. 

When  they  first  obtained  power  the  Bolshevists  at- 
tempted almost  spontaneously  to  put  this  theory  into 
practice  by  every  conceivable  form  of  persecution.  Many 
of  their  leaders  declared  that  religion  and  God  were  to 
be  "abolished,"  and  some  of  the  early  decrees  went  far 

209 


210  SOVIETISM 

in  this  direction,  as  that  forbidding  religious  instruction 
even  in  private  schools.  Priests  were  killed  and  churches 
plundered  on  a  large  scale.  But  the  Bolshevists  had 
not  yet  worked  out  their  anti-religious  policies,  and 
some  of  their  leaders,  like  Lenine,  had  always  pointed 
out  the  impossibility  of  the  sudden  and  forcible  con- 
version of  the  peasant  90  per  cent. 

A  policy  has  now  been  formulated.  It  consists  in 
the  cessation  of  all  public  and  systematic  persecution 
and  the  use  of  the  entire  machinery  of  the  Soviets, 
schools,  monopolized  press,  and  other  official  propa- 
ganda, for  one  vast  campaign  against  religion.  As  Buk- 
harin  declares, ' '  Religion  is  a  private  affair ;  this  does  not 
mean  that  we  (i.e.,  the  Soviets)  must  not  oppose  re- 
ligion by  all  persuasive  means."  We  have  noted  the 
Bolshevist  methods  of  persuasion !  As  the  leading  Roman 
Catholic  dignitary  of  Russia,  Archbishop  Ropp,  declares, 

"Bolshevism,  despite  its  ostentatious  atheism, 
does  not  prevent  Christian  work  in  churches,  but 
there  is  a  constant  effort  to  demoralize  the  youth 
of  the  country.  Their  theory  is  that  a  child  does 
not  belong  to  the  parents,  but  to  the  state." 

The  Soviets  are  now  moderating  their  anti-religiouB 
campaign  somewhat  in  order  to  make  it  more  effective. 
But  there  is  not  the  slightest  modification  in  spirit. 
Anti-religious  propaganda  is  the  twin  sister  of  Com- 
munist propaganda,  and  both  are  still  functions  (indeed, 
the  chief  functions)  of  government! 

The  Communist  organization  and  the  Soviet  organiza- 
tion are  absolutely  one — but  two  phases  of  a  single 
movement,  as  the  Bolshevists  never  grow  weary  of  de- 
claring— though,  of  course,  they  also  deny  the  conneo- 


APPENDICES  211 

tion  whenever  more  convenient.  The  present  Soviet 
policy  on  religion  was  formulated  at  the)f8th  Communist 
Congress  (March  11-23,  1919)  as  follows: 

1 '  With  respect  to  religion  the  Russian  Communist 
Party  is  not  satisfied  to  stop  with  the  separation  of 
Church  from  state  and  school  from  church,  already 
effected  by  (Soviet)  decrees,  that  is,  measures  which 
bourgeois  democracies  put  forward  in  their  pro- 
grams, but  have  never  carried  out  to  the  logical  con- 
clusion because  of  the  many  strong  ties  between 
capital  and  religious  propaganda. 

"The  Russian  Communist  Party  is  guided  by  the 
firm  conviction  that  only  the  realization  of  initiative 
and  consciousness  on  the  part  of  the  masses  in  all 
social  and  economic  activities,  will  bring  about  the 
complete  eradication  of  religious  prejudices.  The 
Party  strives  to  destroy  completely  the  connection 
between  the  exploited  classes  and  the  organization  of 
religious  propaganda,  thus  assisting  the  actual  lib- 
eration of  the  toiling  masses  from  religious  preju- 
dices and  organizing  the  broadest  possible  scientific- 
educational  and  anti-religious  propaganda.  In  this 
connection  one  must  carefully  avoid  giving  any  of- 
fense to  the  feelings  of  religiously  inclined  persons, 
which  would  only  lead  to  the  strengthening  of  re- 
ligious fanaticism." 

It  may  be  doubted  if  the  peasants  and  their  natural 
religious  leaders  will  be  deceived  by  the  new  manner 
of  this  propaganda.  They  will  know  that  their  con- 
fiscated property  is  being  used  in  large  part  to  teach 
their  children  what  they  do  not  believe  and  to  fill  the 
press  with  a  propaganda  directed  against  some  of  the 
ideals  and  principles  they  hold  most  dear. 

After  Lenine,  Bukharin,  editor  of  the  Pravda,  is  the 
great  Communist  theorist  and  he  is  the  leading  authority 


212  SOVIETISM 

on  religion  as  well  as  a  high  official  in  the  Soviets  and 
the  Communist  International.  This  is  what  Buckharin 
says  (in  his  book  ''The  A  B  C  of  Communism,"  pub- 
lished in  Moscow  last  October)  about  the  attitude  of  his 
party  and  government  toward  religion: 

' '  There  are  some  soft-headed  Communists  who  say 
that  their  religion  does  not  prevent  them  from  being 
Communists.  They  say  that  'they  believe  both  in 
God  and  in  Communism!'  Such  a  view  is  funda- 
mentally wrong :  religion  and  communism  do  not  go 
together  either  in  theory  or  in  practice.  Between 
the  precepts  of  communism  and  those  of  the  Chris- 
tian religion,  there  is  an  impassable  barrier." 

Buckharin  has  written  a  pamphlet  especially  for  the 
guidance  of  Soviet  educators  entitled  "Church  and 
School  in  the  Soviet  Kepublic"  (republished  by  the 
Russian  Socialist  Federation  of  New  York,  in  1919). 
Here  are  some  striking  paragraphs: 

"One  of  the  means  for  casting  darkness  into  the 
popular  mind  is  the  belief  in  God  and  the  Devil,  in 
evil  and  good  spirits  (angels  and  saints) — religion. 
The  mass  of  the  people  has  become  accustomed  to 
believe  in  all  this,  and  meanwhile,  if  we  examine  the 
matter  thoroughly  and  understand  whence  religion 
has  arisen  as  well  as  why  religion  is  so  strongly  up- 
held by  the  ruling  class  (bourgeoisie),  it  will  become 
comprehensible  what  the  present  significance  of 
religion  is,  that  it  is  a  poison  with  which  they  have 
been  and  still  are  poisoning  the  people.  It  will  also 
then  become  understandable  why  the  Communist 
party  is  the  decided  opponent  of  religion. 

"The  word  God  (Bog)  comes  from  the  word  rich 
(bogaty). 

"It  is  an  interesting  fact  that  all  names  of  God 


APPENDICES  213 

testify  to  this  origin  of  religion.  What  does  the 
word  'God'  mean?  Whence  does  it  come?  God 
(Bog)  means  strong,  powerful,  rich  (bogaty).  How 
still  in  contradistinction  to  the  slave.  In  the  prayers 
they  say:  We  are  the  slaves." 

This  play  upon  the  word  for  God  in  Russian  is  an 
especially  unprincipled  deception  of  the  illiterate  Rus- 
sian peasant,  the  suggestion  being  that  it  is  the  same  in 
other  languages.    Bukharin  continues: 

"Thus  the  belief  in  God  is  the  casting  away  of 
filthy  earthly  connections,  it  is  a  belief  in  slavery, 
not  only  on  earth  but  throughout  the  universe. 

"War  breaks  out,  people  perish  by  the  millions, 
and  oceans  of  blood  is  spilled.  An  explanation  must 
be  found  for  this.  Those  who  do  not  believe  in 
God  look  at  the  how,  the  what,  and  the  wherefore: 
they  see  that  the  war  was  schemed  by  the  czars, 
emperors  and  the  presidents,  by  the  fat  bourgeoisie 
and  the  landlords :  they  see  that  it  is  waged  for  the 
sake  of  rapacious  and  filthy  ends.  And  therefore 
they  say  to  the\ laborers  of  all  countries:  'Take  up 
arms  against  your  oppressors,  cast  capital  from  its 
thrones!'  A  religious  man  is  an  entirely  different 
matter.  He  reasons  thus  (and  at  the  same  time 
groans  like  an  old  woman)  :  'The  Lord  has  punished 
us  for  our  sins.  0  father,  emperor  of  heaven,  thou 
hast  rightly  chastized  us  sinners. '  And  if  he  is  very 
religious  and  at  the  same  time  orthodox,  then  he 
begins  to  zealously  chew  one  kind  of  food  instead 
of  another  on  certain  days  (this  is  called  'doing  rev- 
erence'), and  does  a  thousand  other  stupid  things. 
Just  such  stupid  things  are  performed  by  the  re- 
ligious Jew,  the  Mohammedan  Tartar,  the  Buddhistic 
Chinese,  and  in  a  word  by  all  believers  in  God. 
Hence  it  is  apparent  that  those  who  really  are  be- 
lievers are  incapable  of  any  struggle.  Religion  thus 


214  SOVIETISM 

not  only  leaves  the  people  in  barbarism  but  contrib- 
utes toward  keeping  them  in  slavery.  The  religious 
man  is  rather  inclined  to  the  belief  that  everything 
must  be  borne  without  resistance  (because  every- 
thing, he  says,  'is  from  God'),  and  that  it  is  neces- 
sary to  submit  to  the  authorities  and  suffer,  (for  'in 
the  other  world  you  will  be  rewarded  100-fold').  It 
is  therefore  no  wonder  that  the  reigning  capitalistic 
classes  deem  religion  a  very  useful  weapon  for  keep- 
ing the  people  stupid." 

Here  we  see  the  highly  educated  Bukharin  deliberately 
hiding  from  the  Russian  peasant  that  there  are  in  the 
world  any  religious  people,  Christian,  Jewish  or  other, 
except  the  grossly  superstitious  with  which  they  are 
familiar. 

He  next  proceeds  to  spread  the  idea  that  almost  all 
religions  are  engines  of  autocratic  governments,  like  the 
State  Churches  of  the  Kaisers  and  the  Czars : 

"We  have  seen  that  the  bourgeoisie  maintains  it- 
self not  only  with  bayonets  but  also  by  stupefying 
the  minds  of  its  slaves.  We  have  seen  on  the  other 
hand  that  the  bourgeoisie  poisons  the  minds  of  its 
subjects  in  an  organized  and  planned  manner.  This 
purpose  is  served  by  a  special  organization,  viz,  the 
church,  the  ecclesiastical  organization  of  the  gov- 
ernment. The  church  in  almost  all  capitalistic 
countries  is  as  much  of  a  government  organization 
as  the  police,  and  the  priest  is  as  much  of  a  govern- 
ment official  as  the  sheriff,  gendarme  or  detective.  He 
receives  a  government  salary  for  the  poison  which  he 
spreads  among  the  popular  masses." 

Surely  these  quotations  are  enough  to  show  the  utterly 
unprincipled  and  crude  nature  of  the  official  Soviet 
anti-religious  propaganda — and  the  thoroughly  dishon- 
est character  of  their  propaganda  generally. 


APPENDICES  215 

I  can  safely  leave  to  the  reader's  imagination  the  in- 
evitable "working  out"  of  such  a  policy  in  such  hands. 


II — The   Soviets   as   a   Military   Menace;   tine   "Labor 

Army"  a  Cloak  for  Large  and  Permanent 

Professional  Army 

"We  shall  call  our  troops  a  labor  army,"  said  Zi- 
neviev  in  a  recent  speech  in  Petrograd  (quoted  in 
"Soviet  Eussia"  April  3rd,  1920). 

Trotzky  developed  this  thought  at  great  length  at  the 
Third  All-Russian  Congress  of  the  "National  Economic 
Congress ' '  in  January,  declaring  that  the  military  forces 
must  be  kept  both  mobilized  and  under  arms.    He  said : 

"If  we  luwe  learned  anything  in  the  civil  war  it 
is  certainly  circumspection.  While  keeping  the  army 
under  arms,  we  may  use  it  for  economic  purposes, 
with  the  possibility  of  sending  it  to  the  front  in 
case  of  need."  (The  Bolshevist  official  organ,  Izves- 
tia,  January  29th,  1920.) 

The  use  of  this  army  to  inaugurate  compulsory  labor 
and  to  function  economically  does  not  therefore  inter- 
fere in  any  way  with  its  military  function.  The  mili- 
tary force  has  not  been  disbanded  and  converted  into  an 
economic  force.  On  the  contrary  the  two  functions  have 
been  fused.  It  is  just  as  much  a  military  as  an  economic 
policy.  We  can  see  this  from  the  language  of  Trotzky 's 
entire  speech.     He  continued: 

"This  experiment  is  of  the  most  vital  moral  and 
material  importance.  We  cannot  mobilize  the 
peasants  by  means  of  trade  unions,  and  the  trade 


216  SOVIETISM 

unions  themselves  do  not  possess  any  means  of  lay- 
ing hold  of  millions  of  peasants.  They  can  best  be 
mobilized  on  a  military  footing.  Their  labor  forma- 
tions will  have  to  be  organized  on  a  military  model — 
labor  platoons,  labor  companies,  labor  battalions, 
disciplined  as  required,  for  we  shall  have  to  deal 
with  masses  which  have  not  passed  through  trade 
union  trading.    This  is  a  matter  of  the  near  future. 

"We  shall  be  compelled  to  create  new  military 
organizations  such  as  exist  already  in  the  form  of 
our  armies.  It  is  therefore  urgent  to  utilize  them 
by  adapting  them  to  economic  requirements. 

"That  is  exactly  what  we  are  doing  now." 

At  the  Convention  of  the  Communist  Party  on  March 
27th  the  critical  international  diplomatic  situation  of 
the  Soviets  and  their  difficulties  in  securing  recognition 
led  Trotzky  to  say  less  about  the  purely  military  motives 
which  lay  at  the  bottom  of  his  scheme.  But  no  funda- 
mental change  was  made  in  the  Red  "Labor"  Army  to 
make  it  any  less  a  military  organization  than  it  was  be- 
fore. On  the  contrary  it  was  always  military  discipline 
that  was  emphasized. 

At  this  Congress  Trotzky  was  brutally  frank  in  his 
outline  of  the  "civil  war"  use  of  the  Red  Army — under 
its  new  title.  It  was  to  be  employed  to  coerce,  not  so 
much  the  unskilled  workers,  who  have  for  the  most  part 
long  ago  submitted  to  the  Soviets,  but  such  skilled 
workers  as  those  of  the  railroads  and  that  90  per  cent, 
of  the  population,  the  peasantry,  in  reading  the  fol- 
lowing quotation  from  Trotzky 's  speech  it  will  be  evident 
that  this  coercion  has  just  as  much  value  for  the  pur- 
poses of  preventing  any  possible  insurrections,  rebel- 
lions or  revolts,  as  it  has  for  the  purpose  of  securing  new 
labor  power.    At  this  Congress  Trotzky  said : 


APPENDICES  217 

"Mobilization  is  more  necessary  now  than  it  was 
formerly*,"  he  declared,  "because  we  have  to  deal 
with  the  peasant  population  and  the  masses  of  un- 
skilled labor  which  cannot  be  utilized  to  the  fullest 
extent  by  any  other  means  than  military  discipline. ' ' 

Trotzky  declared  the  working  army,  which  is  built  on 
the  principle  of  compulsory  work,  is  no  less  productive 
than  was  the  old  system  of  competition,  and  came  out 
in  favor  of  personal  rather  than  collective  administra- 
tion (dictatorship).  He  asserted  that  "political"  ad- 
ministration of  railroads  was  unsatisfactory  and  tem- 
porary, adding,  however,  that  it  was  necessary,  because 
railroad  workers  are  more  conservative  in  tendency  than 
men  engaged  in  other  branches  of  labor. 

(As  quoted  by  the  Official  Soviet  wireless.) 

If,  in  connection  with  this  permanent  Ked  Army,  we 
recall  the  Soviets'  boast  that  their  propaganda  has  so 
permeated  the  armies  of  western  Europe  that  none  will 
fight  against  them,  we  can  see  that  here  is  a  military 
menace  of  the  first  magnitude — an  immense,  well  organ- 
ized army  led  by  aggressive  and  unprincipled  fanatics 
with  world  conquest — by  arms,  revolution,  or  propa- 
ganda— as  the  first  point  of  their  program! 

Even  if  the  Soviets  are  mistaken  about  the  strength 
of  the  pro-Bolshevist  sentiment  in  Europe  and  America, 
even  if  there  are  circumstances  under  which  western 
armies  might  fight — in  their  own  defense  or  in  the  de- 
fense of  the  smaller  nations — nevertheless,  the  success 
of  the  Soviet  armies  (however  inconsiderable  the  re- 
sistance they  had  to  meet)  has  convinced  the  Bolsheviki 
that  they  are  invincible.  This  idea  in  itself  makes  fu- 
ture aggression  almost  certain. 

But  the  Soviets  have  fairly  good  grounds  for  this 


218  SOVIETISM 

belief  in  their  military  superiority.  For  propaganda  is 
a  recognized  means  of  warfare.  As  the  Soviet  radiogram 
quoted  on  page  81  declares,  it  is  often  more  effective 
than  artillery  fire.  By  every  imaginable  falsehood 
against  other  governments,  by  every  conceivable  false 
statement  that  could  appeal  to  the  average  man,  the 
Bolshevists  have  developed  by  far  the  most  effective  mil- 
itary weapon  yet  known.  With  this  weapon  they  have 
had  an  almost  uninterrupted  success.  It  is  by  this 
weapon — largely — that  they  hope  to  conquer. 

Ill — The  Communist  Party's  Official  Functions  in  the 
Soviet  Government 

Besides  a  rigid  control  over  the  Red  Army,  the  bureau- 
cracy, the  Soviets,  the  schools  and  the  press,  the  Russian 
Communist  Party  has  endowed  itself  with  many  specific 
government  functions.  A  memorandum  of  the  United 
States  Government  describes  some  of  these  as  follows, 
giving  the  original  printed  documents  in  the  Appendices 
referred  to  ((see  "Memorandum  on  the  Bolshevist  or 
Communist  Party  in  Russia  and  its  Relations  to  the 
Third   or   Communist    International    and   the    Russian 

Soviets"): 

The  Communist  Party,  as  such,  has  assumed  definite 
administrative  functions.  This  took  place  first  in  con- 
nection with  the  organization  of  the  Extraordinary  Com- 
missions to  Combat  Counter-Revolution,  Sabotage  and 
Speculation  in  the  first  months  of  1918.  At  first  these 
commissions  were  simply  local  party  organizations, 
though  later  they  become  attached  to  the  local  Soviets 
and  to  the  Central  Executive  Committee.  (For  discus- 
sion of  this  point  see  ' '  Memorandum  on  Certain  Aspects 


APPENDICES  219 

of  the  Bolshevist  Movement  in  Russia,"  p.  9,  in  which 
statements  are  taken  from  the  official  "Weekly  of  the 
All-Russian  Extraordinary  Commission,  of  October  27, 
1918.) 

In  connection  with  the  mobilization  in  1918,  instruc- 
tions were  sent  out  by  the  Central  Committee  of  the 
Communist  Party  in  which  it  is  stated  that  the — 

Provincial  Committee  of  the  Party  is  responsible 
for  carrying  out  the  cantonal  mobilization  which 
was  set  by  the  All-Russian  Central  Executive  Com- 
mittee of  Soviets,  and  by  the  Soviet  of  Defense  on 
April  25,  1919. 

In  these  same  instructions  members  of  the  Party  were 
ordered  to  perform  the  definite  functions  of  verifying, 
in  collaboration  with  the  Provincial  Military  Commis- 
saries, the  lists  of  former  officers  in  civil  positions.  (For 
text  of  these  instructions,  see  Appendix  XI.)  The  Cen- 
tral Committee  of  the  Russian  Communist  Party  sent 
instructions  not  only  to  Provincial  Committees  of  the 
Party  but  also  to  the  above  mentioned  Provincial  Mili- 
tary Commissaries  (announcement  appearing  in  the 
Petrograd  "Pravda"  of  May  1,  1919,  Appendix  XII). 

In  connection  with  the  organization  of  a  "  Workmen 's- 
Peasants'  University"  which  was  to  be  a  kind  of  normal 
school  attached  to  the  official  People's  Commissariat  of 
the  Interior,  students  had  to  be  supplied  not  only  with  a 
certificate  of  the  local  Executive  Committee,  but  also 
with  a  recommendation  of  a  Communist  organization. 
The  program  of  this  university  included  among  the  sub- 
jects taught  "The*  Russian  Communist  Party  and  its 
History."  (Appendix  XIII.)  Also,  in  connection  with 
the  development  of  general  educational  work  in  the  vil- 


220  SOVIETISM 

lages,  an  extract  from  the  resolution  of  the  Eighth  Con- 
gress of  the  Russian  Communist  Party,  held  in  March, 
1919  (Appendix  XIV)  shows  that  "departments  of  pub- 
lic education,  in  provinces  and  districts,  with  the  as- 
sistance and  under  the  control  of  local  party  organiza- 
tions, organize  colleges  of  propaganda.  ..." 

Committees  of  the  Russian  Communist  Party  sit  in 
joint  session  with  the  All-Russian  Central  Executive 
Committee,  as  well  as  with  other  official  Soviet  insti- 
tutions. Such  an  instance  is  described  in  the  Severnaya 
Kommuna  of  March  7,  1919  (Appendix  XV),  at  which 
resolutions  were  passed  "in  the  name  of  Soviet  Russia." 

In  announcing  the  reelection  of  People's  Judges  in 
Petrograd,  a  news  item  in  the  Krasnava  Gazeta  of 
December  20,  1919,  states  that  "the  reelection  of  judges 
and  the  confirmation  of  the  new  judges  will  take  place 
in  the  ward  committees  of  the  party."  (Appendix  XVI.) 

Attached  to  each  unit  of  the  Red  Army  is  a  so-called 
Political  Section,  which  receives  instructions  from  the 
Central  Committee  of  the  Russian  Communist  Party. 
(See  Appendix  XXII.)1 

In  a  widely  published  letter  by  Lenine,  addressed  to 
workmen  and  peasants  on  the  occasion  of  the  victory 
over  Kolchak,  one  finds  it  stated  that — 

"The  dictatorship  of  the  working  class  is  carried 
out  by  the  Party  of  Bolsheviks,  which,  as  early  as 
1905,  and  earlier,  became  one  with  the  revolutionary 
proletariat. ' ' 

1  This  Political  Section  has  supreme  power,  except  over  technical 
military  matters.  It  freely  distributes  penalties,  including  capital 
punishment. 


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